Funeral Oration on the Great S. Basil,
Bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia.

S. Basil died January 1,
a.d. 379. A serious illness, in addition
to other causes, prevented S. Gregory from being present at his funeral
(Epist. 79). Benoît holds that an expression (Epitaph, cxix.
38) in which S. Gregory says that his “lips are fettered”
proves that he was still in retirement at Seleucia. This is an
unwarranted deduction. In this Oration, § 2, the Saint,
alluding to his illness in disparaging terms, alleges his labours at
Constantinople as a more pressing reason for his absence: and
says that he undertook the task according to the judgment of S.
Basil. This implies that S. Gregory went to Constantinople before
the death of S. Basil, or that he had then been influenced by his
friend’s advice and was on the point of setting out—more
probably the former, as we may be sure that, if S. Gregory had been
still at Seleucia, no reason but physical incapacity would have kept
him from his friend’s side. His pressing duties at
Constantinople and the difficulties of the long journey were the
“other causes” of his letter to S. Gregory of Nyssa:
and we know that he suffered from serious illness at Constantinople
(Carm. xi. 887. Orat. xxiii. 1). S. Gregory left
Constantinople in June, a.d. 381, and
Tillemont places the date of this Oration soon after his return to
Nazianzus. Benoît thinks that it was probably delivered on
the anniversary of S. Basil’s death. The Oration, as all
critics are agreed, is one of great power and beauty. Its length
(62 pages folio), the physical weakness of the speaker, and the limits
of the endurance of even an interested audience, incline us to suppose
that it was not spoken in its present form. We cannot well set
aside expressions which clearly point to actual delivery, but it may
have been amplified later.

1. It has then been
ordained that the great Basil, who used so constantly to furnish me
with subjects for my discourses, of which he was quite as proud as any
other man of his own, should himself now furnish me with the grandest
subject which has ever fallen to the lot of an orator. For I
think that if anyone desired, in making trial of his powers of
eloquence, to test them by the standard of that one of all his subjects
which he preferred (as painters do with epoch-making pictures), he
would choose that which stood first of all others, but would set aside
this as beyond the powers of human eloquence. So great a task is
the praise of such a man, not only to me, who have long ago laid aside
all thought of emulation, but even to those who live for eloquence, and
whose sole object is the gaining of glory by subjects like this.
Such is my opinion, and, as I persuade myself, with perfect
justice. But I know not what subject I can treat with eloquence,
if not this; or what greater favour I can do to myself, to the admirers
of virtue, or to eloquence itself, than express our admiration for this
man. To me it is the discharge of a most sacred debt. And
our speech is a debt beyond all others due to those who have been
gifted, in particular, with powers of speech. To the admirers of
virtue a discourse is at once a pleasure and an incentive to
virtue. For when43974397For when,
etc. This seems to be the sense of an admittedly difficult
sentence. I have learned the
praises of men, I have a distinct idea of their progress: now,
there is none of us all, within whose power it is not to attain to any
point whatsoever in that progress. As for eloquence itself, in
either case, all must go well with it. For, if the discourse be
almost worthy of its subject—eloquence will have given an
exhibition of its power: if it fall far short of it, as must be
the case when the praises of Basil are being set forth, by an actual
demonstration of its incapacity, it will have declared the superiority
of the excellences of its subject to all expression in
words.

2. These are the reasons which have urged me to
speak, and to address myself to this contest. And at my late
appearance, long after his praises have been set forth by so many, who
have publicly and privately done him honour, let no one be
surprised. Yea, may I be pardoned by that divine soul, the object
of my constant reverence! And as, when he was amongst us, he
constantly corrected me in many points, according to the rights of a
friend and the still higher law; for I am not ashamed to say this, for
he was a standard of virtue to us all; so now, looking down upon me
from above, he will treat me with indul396gence. I ask pardon too of any here
who are among his warmest admirers, if indeed anyone can be warmer than
another, and we are not all abreast in our zeal for his good
fame. For it is not contempt which has caused me to fall short of
what might have been expected of me: nor have I been so
regardless of the claims of virtue or of friendship; nor have I thought
that to praise him befitted any other more than me. No! my first
reason was, that I shrunk from this task, for I will say the truth, as
priests43984398As priests, or,
more generally, “as those who approach our temples.”
In the E. there were lavers at the entrance to the churches for the
ablutions of intending worshippers. do, who approach
their sacred duties before being cleansed both in voice and mind.
In the second place, I remind you, though you know it well, of the
task43994399Of the task,
i.e., of restoring the orthodox faith in Constantinople. in which I was engaged on behalf of the true
doctrine, which had been properly forced upon me, and had carried me
from home, according, as I suppose, to the will of God, and certainly
according to the judgment of our noble champion of the truth, the
breath of whose life was pious doctrine alone, such as promotes the
salvation of the whole world. As for my bodily health, I ought
not, perhaps, to dare to mention it, when my subject is a man so
doughty in his conquest of the body, even before his removal hence, and
who maintained that no powers of the soul should suffer hindrance from
this our fetter.44004400Fetter, i.e.,
the body. So much for
my defence. I do not think I need labour it further, in speaking
of him to you who know so clearly my affairs. I must now proceed
with my eulogy, commending myself to his God, in order that my
commendations may not prove an insult to the man, and that I may not
lag far behind all others; even though we all equally fall as far short
of his due, as those who look upon the heavens or the rays of the
Sun.

3. Had I seen him to be proud of his birth,
and the rights of birth, or any of those infinitely little objects of
those whose eyes are on the ground, we should have had to inspect a new
catalogue of the Heroes. What details as to his ancestors might I
not have laid under contribution! Nor would even history have had
any advantage over me, since I claim this advantage, that his celebrity
depends, not upon fiction or legend, but upon actual facts attested by
many witnesses. On his father’s side Pontus offers to me
many details, in no wise inferior to its wonders of old time, of which
all history and poesy are full;44014401History and
poesy, e.g., Xenophon, Polybius, and Apollonius. there are many
others concerned with this my native land, of illustrious men of
Cappadocia, renowned for its youthful progeny,44024402Renowned,
etc. Cf. Homer, Od. ix. 27. no
less than for its horses. Accordingly we match with his
father’s family that of his mother. What family owns more
numerous, or more illustrious generals and governors, or court
officials, or again, men of wealth, and lofty thrones, and public
honours, and oratorical renown? If it were permitted me to wish
to mention them, I would make nothing of the Pelopidæ and
Cecropidæ, the Alcmæonids, the Æacidæ, and
Heracleidæ, and other most noble families: inasmuch as they,
in default of public merit in their house, betake themselves to the
region of uncertainty, claiming demigods and divinities, merely
mythical personages, as the glory of their ancestors, whose most
vaunted details are incredible, and those which we can believe are an
infamy.

4. But since our subject is a man who has
maintained that each man’s nobility is to be judged of according
to his own worth, and that, as forms and colours, and likewise our most
celebrated and most infamous horses, are tested by their own
properties, so we too ought not to be depicted in borrowed plumes;
after mentioning one or two traits, which, though inherited from his
ancestors, he made his own by his life, and which are specially likely
to give pleasure to my hearers, I will then proceed to deal with the
man himself. Different families and individuals have different
points of distinction and interest, great or small, which, like a
patrimony of longer or shorter descent, come down to posterity:
the distinction of his family on either side was piety, which I now
proceed to display.

5. There was a persecution, the most
frightful and severe of all; I mean, as you know, the persecution of
Maximinus, which, following closely upon those which immediately
preceded it, made them all seem gentle, by its excessive audacity, and
by its eagerness to win the crown of violence in impiety. It was
overcome by many of our champions, who wrestled with it to the death,
or well-nigh to the death, with only life enough left in them to
survive their victory, and not pass away in the midst of the struggle;
remaining to be trainers44034403Trainers, lit.
“anointers”—those who physically and by their advice
prepared athletes for their exercises. in virtue, living
witnesses, breathing trophies, silent exhortations, among whose
numerous ranks were found Basil’s paternal ancestors, upon
whom, 397in their practice of
every form of piety, that period bestowed many a fair garland. So
prepared and determined were they to bear readily all those things on
account of which Christ crowns those who have imitated His struggle on
our behalf.

6. But since their strife must needs be lawful,
and the law of martyrdom alike forbids us voluntarily to go to meet it
(in consideration for the persecutors, and for the weak) or to shrink
from it if it comes upon us; for the former shows foolhardiness, the
latter cowardice; in this respect they paid due honour to the Lawgiver;
but what was their device, or rather, to what were they led by the
Providence which guided them in all things? They betook
themselves to a thicket on the mountains of Pontus, of which there are
many deep ones of considerable extent, with very few comrades of their
flight, or attendants upon their needs. Let others marvel at the
length of time, for their flight was exceedingly prolonged, to about
seven years, or a little more, and their mode of life, delicately
nurtured as they were, was straitened and unusual, as may be imagined,
with the discomfort of its exposure to frost and heat and rain:
and the wilderness allowed no fellowship or converse with
friends: a great trial to men accustomed to the attendance and
honour of a numerous retinue. But I will proceed to speak of what
is still greater and more extraordinary: nor will anyone fail to
credit it, save those who, in their feeble and dangerous judgment,
think little of persecutions and dangers for Christ’s sake.

7. These noble men, suffering from the lapse
of time, and feeling a distaste for ordinary food, felt a longing for
something more appetising. They did not indeed speak as Israel
did,44044404Exod. xvi. 2 et seq. for they were not murmurers440544051 Cor. x. 10. like them, in their afflictions in the
desert, after the escape from Egypt—that Egypt would have been
better for them than the wilderness, in the bountiful supply of its
flesh-pots, and other dainties which they had left behind them there,
for the brickmaking and the clay seemed nothing to them then in their
folly—but in a more pious and faithful manner. For why,
said they, is it incredible that the God of wonders, who bountifully
fed44064406Exod. xvi. 13. in the wilderness his homeless and fugitive
people, raining bread upon them, and abounding in quails, nourishing
them not only with necessaries, but even with luxuries: that He,
Who divided the sea,44074407Ib. xiv.
21. and stayed the
sun,44084408Josh. iii. 16; x. 12. and parted the river, with all the other
things that He has done; for under such circumstances the mind is wont
to recur to history, and sing the praises of God’s many
wonders: that He, they went on, should feed us champions of piety
with dainties to-day? Many animals which have escaped the tables
of the rich, have their lairs in these mountains, and many eatable
birds fly over our longing heads, any of which can surely be caught at
the mere fiat of Thy will! At these words, their quarry lay
before them, with food come of its own accord, a complete banquet
prepared without effort, stags appearing all at once from some place in
the hills. How splendid they were! how fat! how ready for the
slaughter! It might almost be imagined that they were annoyed at
not having been summoned earlier. Some of them made signs to draw
others after them, the rest followed their lead. Who pursued and
drove them? No one. What riders? What kind of dogs,
what barking, or cry, or young men who had occupied the exits according
to the rules of the chase? They were the prisoners of prayer and
righteous petition. Who has known such a hunt among men of this,
or any day?

8. O what a wonder! They were
themselves stewards of the chase; what they would, was caught by the
mere will to do so; what was left, they sent away to the thickets, for
another meal. The cooks were extemporised, the dinner exquisite,
the guests were grateful for this wonderful foretaste of their
hopes. And hence they grew more earnest in their struggle, in
return for which they had received this blessing. Such is my
history. And do thou, my persecutor, in thy admiration for
legends, tell of thy huntresses,44094409Huntresses,
esp. Artemis, a passion for whom was fatal to Orion and
Actæon. and Orions,
and Actæons, those ill-fated hunters, and the hind substituted for
the maiden,44104410The maiden,
Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon. if any such thing
rouses thee to emulation, and if we grant that this story is no
legend. The sequel of the tale is too disgraceful. For what
is the benefit of the exchange, if a maiden is saved to be taught to
murder her guests, and learn to requite humanity with inhumanity?
Let this one instance, such as it is, chosen out of many, represent the
rest, as far as I am concerned. I have not related it to
contribute to his reputation: for neither does the sea stand in
need of the rivers which flow into it, many and great though they be,
nor does the present subject of my praises need any contributions to
his fair fame. No! my object is to exhibit 398the character of his ancestors, and the example
before his eyes, which he so far excelled. For if other men find
it a great additional advantage to receive somewhat of their honour
from their forefathers, it is a greater thing for him to have made such
an addition to the original stock that the stream seems to have run
uphill.

9. The union of his parents, cemented as it was by
a community of virtue, no less than by cohabitation, was notable for
many reasons, especially for generosity to the poor, for hospitality,
for purity of soul as the result of self-discipline, for the dedication
to God of a portion of their property, a matter not as yet so much
cared for by most men, as it now has grown to be, in consequence of
such previous examples, as have given distinction to it, and for all
those other points, which have been published throughout Pontus and
Cappadocia, to the satisfaction of many: in my opinion, however,
their greatest claim to distinction is the excellence of their
children. Legend indeed has its instances of men whose children
were many and beautiful, but it is practical experience which has
presented to us these parents, whose own character, apart from that of
their children, was sufficient for their fair fame, while the character
of their children would have made them, even without their own eminence
in virtue, to surpass all men by the excellence of their
children. For the attainment of distinction by one or two of
their offspring might be ascribed to their nature; but when all are
eminent, the honour is clearly due to those who brought them up.
This is proved by the blessed roll of priests and virgins, and of those
who, when married, have allowed nothing in their union to hinder them
from attaining an equal repute, and so have made the distinction
between them to consist in the condition, rather than in the mode of
their life.

10. Who has not known Basil, our
archbishop’s father, a great name to everyone, who attained a
father’s prayer, if anyone, I will not say as no one, ever
did? For he surpassed all in virtue, and was only prevented by
his son from gaining the first prize. Who has not known Emmelia,
whose name was a forecast of what she became, or else whose life was an
exemplification of her name? For she had a right to the name
which implies gracefulness, and occupied, to speak concisely, the same
place among women, as her husband among men. So that, when it was
decided that he, in whose honour we are met, should be given to men to
submit to the bondage of nature, as anyone of old has been given by God
for the common advantage, it was neither fitting that he should be born
of other parents, nor that they should possess another son: and
so the two things suitably concurred. I have now, in obedience to
the Divine law which bids us to pay all honour to parents, bestowed the
firstfruits of my praises upon those whom I have commemorated, and
proceed to treat of Basil himself, premising this, which I think will
seem true to all who knew him, that we only need his own voice to
pronounce his eulogium. For he is at once a brilliant subject for
praise, and the only one whose powers of speech make him worthy of
treating it. Beauty indeed and strength and size, in which I see
that most men rejoice, I concede to anyone who will—not that even
in these points he was inferior to any of those men of small minds who
busy themselves about the body, while he was still young, and had not
yet reduced the flesh by austerity—but that I may avoid the fate
of unskilful athletes, who waste their strength in vain efforts after
minor objects, and so are worsted in the crucial struggle, whose
results are victory and the distinction of the crown. The praise,
then, which I shall claim for him is based upon grounds which no one, I
think, will consider superfluous, or beyond the scope of my
oration.

11. I take it as admitted by men of sense,
that the first of our advantages is education; and not only this our
more noble form of it, which disregards rhetorical ornaments and glory,
and holds to salvation, and beauty in the objects of our
contemplation: but even that external culture which many
Christians ill-judgingly abhor, as treacherous and dangerous, and
keeping us afar from God. For as we ought not to neglect the
heavens, and earth, and air, and all such things, because some have
wrongly seized upon them, and honour God’s works instead of
God: but to reap what advantage we can from them for our life and
enjoyment, while we avoid their dangers; not raising creation, as
foolish men do, in revolt against the Creator, but from the works of
nature apprehending the Worker,44114411Rom. i. 20, 25. and, as the
divine apostle says, bringing into captivity every thought to
Christ:441244122 Cor. x. 5. and again, as
we know that neither fire, nor food, nor iron, nor any other of the
elements, is of itself most useful, or most harmful, except according
to the will of those who use it; and as we have compounded healthful
drugs from certain of the reptiles; so from secular literature
we 399have received principles
of enquiry and speculation, while we have rejected their idolatry,
terror, and pit of destruction. Nay, even these have aided us in
our religion, by our perception of the contrast between what is worse
and what is better, and by gaining strength for our doctrine from the
weakness of theirs. We must not then dishonour education, because
some men are pleased to do so, but rather suppose such men to be
boorish and uneducated, desiring all men to be as they themselves are,
in order to hide themselves in the general, and escape the detection of
their want of culture. But come now, and, after this sketch of
our subject and these admissions, let us contemplate the life of
Basil.

12. In his earliest years he was swathed and
fashioned, in that best and purest fashioning which the Divine David
speaks of as proceeding day by day,44134413Ps. cxxxix. 16. in contrast
with that of the night, under his great father, acknowledged in those
days by Pontus, as its common teacher of virtue. Under him then,
as life and reason grew and rose together, our illustrious friend was
educated: not boasting of a Thessalian mountain cave, as the
workshop of his virtue, nor of some braggart Centaur,44144414Centaur.
Alluding to Chiron, the tutor of Achilles. the tutor of the heroes of his day:
nor was he taught under such tuition to shoot hares, and run down
fawns, or hunt stags, or excel in war, or in breaking colts, using the
same person as teacher and horse at once; nor nourished on the fabulous
marrows of stags and lions, but he was trained in general education,
and practised in the worship of God, and, to speak concisely, led on by
elementary instructions to his future perfection. For those who
are successful in life or in letters only, while deficient in the
other, seem to me to differ in nothing from one-eyed men, whose loss is
great, but their deformity greater, both in their own eyes, and in
those of others. While those who attain eminence in both alike,
and are ambidextrous, both possess perfection, and pass their life with
the blessedness of heaven. This is what befell him, who had at
home a model of virtue in well-doing, the very sight of which made him
excellent from the first. As we see foals and calves skipping
beside their mothers from their birth, so he too, running close beside
his father in foal-like wantonness, without being left far behind in
his lofty impulses toward virtue, or, if you will, sketching out and
showing traces of the future beauty of his virtue, and drawing the
outlines of perfection before the time of perfection
arrived.

13. When sufficiently trained at home, as he
ought to fall short in no form of excellence, and not be surpassed by
the busy bee, which gathers what is most useful from every flower, he
set out for the city of Cæsarea,44154415Cæsarea,
the Cappadocian city, as seems plain from the context. Yet
Tillemont and Billius incline to think Cæsarea in Palestine is
meant. to
take his place in the schools there, I mean this illustrious city of
ours, for it was the guide and mistress of my studies, the metropolis
of letters, no less than of the cities which she excels and reigns
over: and if any one were to deprive her of her literary power,
he would rob her of her fairest and special distinction. Other
cities take pride in other ornaments, of ancient or of recent date,
that they may have something to be described or to be seen.
Letters form our distinction here, and are our badge, as if upon the
field of arms or on the stage. His subsequent life let those
detail who trained him, or enjoyed his training, as to what he was to
his masters, what he was to his classmates, equalling the former,
surpassing the latter in every form of culture, what renown he won in a
short time from all, both of the common people, and of the leaders of
the state; by showing both a culture beyond his years, and a
steadfastness of character beyond his culture. An orator among
orators, even before the chair of the rhetoricians,44164416Chair, etc.,
Before he had studied rhetoric and philosophy. a philosopher among philosophers, even
before the doctrines of philosophers: highest of all a priest
among Christians even before the priesthood. So much deference
was paid to him in every respect by all. Eloquence was his
by-work, from which he culled enough to make it an assistance to him in
Christian philosophy, since power of this kind is needed to set forth
the objects of our contemplation. For a mind which cannot express
itself is like the motion of a man in a lethargy. His pursuit was
philosophy, and breaking from the world, and fellowship with God, by
concerning himself, amid things below, with things above, and winning,
where all is unstable and fluctuating, the things which are stable and
remain.

14. Thence to Byzantium, the imperial city of the
East, for it was distinguished by the eminence of its rhetorical and
philosophic teachers, whose most valuable lessons he soon assimilated
by the quickness and force of his powers: thence he was sent by
God, and by his generous craving for culture, to Athens the home of
letters. Athens, which has been to me, if to 400any one, a city truly of gold, and the
patroness of all that is good. For it brought me to know Basil
more perfectly, though he had not been unknown to me before; and in my
pursuit of letters, I attained to happiness; and in another fashion had
the same experience as Saul,441744171 Sam. ix. 3. who, seeking his
father’s asses, found a kingdom, and gained incidentally what was
of more importance than the object which he had in view. Hitherto
my course has been clear, leading me in my encomiums along a level and
easy, in fact, a king’s highway: henceforth I know not how
to speak or whither to turn: for my task is becoming
arduous. For here I am anxious, and seize this opportunity to add
from my own experience somewhat to my speech, and to dwell a little
upon the recital of the causes and circumstances which originated our
friendship, or to speak more strictly, our unity of life and
nature. For as our eyes are not ready to turn from attractive
objects, and, if we violently tear them away, are wont to return to
them again; so do we linger in our description of what is most sweet to
us. I am afraid of the difficulty of the undertaking. I
will try, however, to use all possible moderation. And if I am at
all overpowered by my regret, pardon this most righteous of all
feelings, the absence of which would be a great loss, in the eyes of
men of feeling.

15. We were contained by Athens, like two
branches of some river-stream, for after leaving the common fountain of
our fatherland, we had been separated in our varying pursuit of
culture, and were now again united by the impulsion of God no less than
by our own agreement. I preceded him by a little, but he soon
followed me, to be welcomed with great and brilliant hope. For he
was versed in many languages, before his arrival, and it was a great
thing for either of us to outstrip the other in the attainment of some
object of our study. And I may well add, as a seasoning to any
speech, a short narrative, which will be a reminder to those who know
it, a source of information to those who do not. Most of the
young men at Athens in their folly are mad after rhetorical
skill—not only those who are ignobly born and unknown, but even
the noble and illustrious, in the general mass of young men difficult
to keep under control. They are just like men devoted to horses
and exhibitions, as we see, at the horse-races; they leap,44184418They leap,
etc. This passage refers to the spectators who unite in sympathy
with, and imitate as far as possible, in their excitement, the actions
of, those who drive the chariots in the races. they shout, raise clouds of dust, they drive
in their seats, they beat the air, (instead of the horses) with their
fingers as whips, they yoke and unyoke the horses, though they are none
of theirs: they readily exchange with one another drivers,
horses, positions, leaders: and who are they who do this?
Often poor and needy fellows, without the means of support for a single
day. This is just how the students feel in regard to their own
tutors, and their rivals, in their eagerness to increase their own
numbers and thereby enrich them. The matter is absolutely absurd
and silly. Cities, roads, harbours, mountain tops, coastlines,
are seized upon—in short, every part of Attica, or of the rest of
Greece, with most of the inhabitants; for even these they have divided
between the rival parties.

16. Whenever any newcomer arrives, and falls into
the hands of those who seize upon him, either by force or willingly,
they observe this Attic law, of combined jest and earnest. He is
first conducted to the house of one of those who were the first to
receive him, or of his friends, or kinsmen, or countrymen, or of those
who are eminent in debating power, and purveyors of arguments, and
therefore especially honoured among them; and their reward consists in
the gain of adherents. He is next subjected to the raillery of
any one who will, with the intention I suppose, of checking the conceit
of the newcomers, and reducing them to subjection at once. The
raillery is of a more insolent or argumentative kind, according to the
boorishness or refinement of the railer: and the performance,
which seems very fearful and brutal to those who do not know it, is to
those who have experienced it very pleasant and humane: for its
threats are feigned rather than real. Next, he is conducted in
procession through the market place to the bath. The procession
is formed by those who are charged with it in the young man’s
honour, who arrange themselves in two ranks separated by an interval,
and precede him to the bath. But when they have approached it,
they shout and leap wildly, as if possessed, shouting that they must
not advance, but stay, since the bath will not admit them; and at the
same time frighten the youth by furiously knocking at the doors:
then allowing him to enter, they now present him with his freedom, and
receive him after the bath as an equal, and one of themselves.
This they consider the most pleasant part of the ceremony, as being a
speedy exchange and relief from annoyances. On this occasion I
not only refused to put to shame my friend the great Basil, out of
respect for the gravity of 401his
character, and the ripeness of his reasoning powers, but also persuaded
all the rest of the students to treat him likewise, who happened not to
know him. For he was from the first respected by most of them,
his reputation having preceded him. The result was that he was
the only one to escape the general rule, and be accorded a greater
honour than belongs to a freshman’s position.

17. This was the prelude of our
friendship. This was the kindling spark of our union: thus
we felt the wound of mutual love. Then something of this kind
happened, for I think it right not to omit even this. I find the
Armenians to be not a simple race, but very crafty and cunning.
At this time some of his special comrades and friends, who had been
intimate with him even in the early days of his father’s
instruction, for they were members of his school, came up to him under
the guise of friendship, but with envious, and not kindly intent, and
put to him questions of a disputations rather than rational kind,
trying to overwhelm him at the first onset, having known his original
natural endowments, and unable to brook the honour he had then
received. For they thought it a strange thing that they who had
put on their gowns, and been exercised in shouting, should not get the
better of one who was a stranger and a novice. I also, in my vain
love for Athens, and trusting to their professions without perceiving
their envy, when they were giving way, and turning their backs, since I
was indignant that in their persons the reputation of Athens should be
destroyed, and so speedily put to shame, supported the young men, and
restored the argument; and by the aid of my additional weight, for in
such cases a small addition makes all the difference, and, as the poet
says, “made equal their heads in the fray.”44194419 Homer Il. xi. 72. But, when I perceived the secret
motive of the dispute, which could no longer be kept under, and was at
last clearly exposed, I at once drew back, and retired from their
ranks, to range myself on his side, and made the victory
decisive. He was at once delighted at what had happened, for his
sagacity was remarkable, and being filled with zeal, to describe him
fully in Homer’s language, he pursued in confusion44204420 Ib. xi. 496. with argument those valiant youths, and,
smiting them with syllogisms, only ceased when they were utterly
routed, and he had distinctly won the honours due to his power.
Thus was kindled again, no longer a spark, but a manifest and
conspicuous blaze of friendship.

18. Their efforts having thus proved fruitless,
while they severely blamed their own rashness, they cherished such
annoyance against me that it broke out into open hostility, and a
charge of treachery, not only to them, but to Athens herself:
inasmuch as they had been confuted and put to shame at the first onset,
by a single student, who had not even had time to gain
confidence. He moreover, according to that human feeling, which
makes us, when we have all at once attained to the high hopes which we
have cherished, look upon their results as inferior to our expectation,
he, I say, was displeased and annoyed, and could take no delight in his
arrival. He was seeking for what he had expected, and called
Athens an empty happiness. I however tried to remove his
annoyance, both by argumentative encounter, and by the enchantments of
reasoning; alleging, as is true, that the disposition of a man cannot
at once be detected, without a long time and more constant association,
and that culture likewise is not made known to those who make trial of
her, after a few efforts and in a short time. In this way I
restored his cheerfulness, and by this mutual experience, he was the
more closely united to me.

19. And when, as time went on, we
acknowledged our mutual affection, and that philosophy44214421Philosophy,
here, a truly Christian life. was our aim, we were all in all to one
another, housemates, messmates, intimates, with one object in life, or
an affection for each other ever growing warmer and stronger.
Love for bodily attractions, since its objects are fleeting, is as
fleeting as the flowers of spring. For the flame cannot survive,
when the fuel is exhausted, and departs along with that which kindles
it, nor does desire abide, when its incentive wastes away. But
love which is godly and under restraint, since its object is stable,
not only is more lasting, but, the fuller its vision of beauty grows,
the more closely does it bind to itself and to one another the hearts
of those whose love has one and the same object. This is the law
of our superhuman love. I feel that I am being unduly borne away,
and I know not how to enter upon this point, yet I cannot restrain
myself from describing it. For if I have omitted anything, it
seems, immediately afterwards, of pressing importance, and of more
consequence than what I had preferred to mention. And if any one
would carry me tyrannically forward, I become like the polyps, which
when they are being dragged from their holes, cling with their suckers
to the rocks, 402and cannot be
detached, until the last of these has had exerted upon it its necessary
share of force. If then you give me leave, I have my request, if
not I must take it from myself.

20. Such were our feelings for each other,
when we had thus supported, as Pindar44224422 Olymp. Od. vi. 1.
has it, our “well-built chamber with pillars of gold,” as
we advanced under the united influences of God’s grace and our
own affection. Oh! how can I mention these things without
tears.

We were impelled by equal hopes, in a pursuit
especially obnoxious to envy, that of letters. Yet envy we knew
not, and emulation was of service to us. We struggled, not each
to gain the first place for himself, but to yield it to the other; for
we made each other’s reputation to be our own. We seemed to
have one soul, inhabiting two bodies. And if we must not believe
those whose doctrine is “All things44234423All things,
etc., i.e. Empedocles and Anaxagoras.
are in all;” yet in our case it was worthy of belief, so did we
live in and with each other. The sole business of both of us was
virtue, and living for the hopes to come, having retired from this
world, before our actual departure hence. With a view to this,
were directed all our life and actions, under the guidance of the
commandment, as we sharpened upon each other our weapons of virtue; and
if this is not a great thing for me to say, being a rule and standard
to each other, for the distinction between what was right and what was
not. Our associates were not the most dissolute, but the most
sober of our comrades; not the most pugnacious, but the most peaceable,
whose intimacy was most profitable: knowing that it is more easy
to be tainted with vice, than to impart virtue; just as we can more
readily be infected with a disease, than bestow health. Our most
cherished studies were not the most pleasant, but the most excellent;
this being one means of forming young minds in a virtuous or vicious
mould.

21. Two ways were known to us, the first of
greater value, the second of smaller consequence: the one leading
to our sacred buildings and the teachers there, the other to secular
instructors. All others we left to those who would pursue
them—to feasts, theatres, meetings, banquets. For nothing
is in my opinion of value, save that which leads to virtue and to the
improvement of its devotees. Different men have different names,
derived from their fathers, their families, their pursuits, their
exploits: we had but one great business and name—to be and
to be called Christians of which we thought more than Gyges44244424Gyges is said
to have had a ring by means of which he could make himself invisible,
and by thus using it was able to seize on the Kingdom of Lydia. of the turning of his ring, if this is not a
legend, on which depended his Lydian sovereignty: or than
Midas44254425Midas, said to
have had the power granted of turning everything he touched to
gold. Accordingly, as this power took effect on his food, he died
of hunger. did of the gold through which he perished,
in answer to his prayer that all he had might turn to
gold—another Phrygian legend. For why should I speak of the
arrow of the Hyperborean Abaris,44264426Abaris, a
Hyperborean priest of Apollo, who was said to have given him an arrow,
on which he rode through the air. or of the
Argive Pegasus,44274427Pegasus, called
Argive, because caught near to Argos, the winged horse, by the aid of
which Bellerophon was said to have destroyed the Chimæra. to whom flight
through the air was not of such consequence as was to us our rising to
God, through the help of, and with each other? Hurtful as Athens
was to others in spiritual things, and this is of no slight consequence
to the pious, for the city is richer in those evil
riches—idols—than the rest of Greece, and it is hard to
avoid being carried along with their devotees and adherents, yet we,
our minds being closed up and fortified against this, suffered no
injury. On the contrary, strange as it may seem, we were thus the
more confirmed in the faith, from our perception of their trickery and
unreality, which led us to despise these divinities in the very home of
their worship. And if there is, or is believed to be, a
river44284428A river,
etc. The Alpheus, a river of Arcadia. flowing with fresh water through the sea, or
an animal44294429Animal.
The salamander, a lizard said to be impervious to the action of
fire. Plin. N. H. x. 67. which can dance in
fire, the consumer of all things, such were we among all our
comrades.

22. And, best of all, we were surrounded by
a far from ignoble band, under his instruction and guidance, and
delighting in the same objects, as we ran on foot beside that Lydian
car,44304430Lydian car,
proverbial expression for anything whose speed distances all
competitors. his own course and disposition: and so
we became famous, not only among our own teachers and comrades, but
even throughout Greece, and especially in the eyes of its most
distinguished men. We even passed beyond its boundaries, as was
made clear by the evidence of many. For our instructors were
known to all who knew Athens, and all who knew them, knew us, as the
subject of conversation, being actually looked upon, or heard of by
report, as an illustrious pair. Orestes and Pylades44314431Orestes and
Pylades, types of close comradeship in Greek tragedies. were in their eyes nothing to
403us, or the sons of
Molione,44324432Sons of
Molione, Eurytus and Cteatus, Hom. Il. ii. 621. Their father
was Actor. the wonders of the
Homeric scroll, celebrated for their union in misfortune, and their
splendid driving, as they shared in reins and whip alike. But I
have been unawares betrayed into praising myself, in a manner I would
not have allowed in another. And it is no wonder that I gained
here in some advantage from his friendship, and that, as in life he
aided me in virtue, so since his departure he has contributed to my
renown. But I must return to my proper course.

23. Who possessed such a degree of the
prudence of old age, even before his hair was gray? Since it is
by this that Solomon defines old age.44334433Wisd. iv. 8. Who was so respectful to both old and
young, not only of our contemporaries, but even of those who long
preceded him? Who, owing to his character, was less in need of
education? Yet who, even with his character, was so imbued with
learning? What branch of learning did he not traverse; and that
with unexampled success, passing through all, as no one else passed
through any one of them: and attaining such eminence in each, as
if it had been his sole study? The two great sources of power in
the arts and sciences, ability and application, were in him equally
combined. For, because of the pains he took, he had but little
need of natural quickness, and his natural quickness made it
unnecessary for him to take pains; and such was the cooperation and
unity of both, that it was hard to see for which of the two he was more
remarkable. Who had such power in Rhetoric, which
breathes44344434Which breathes,
a phrase used Hom. Il. vi. 182 of the Chimæra. with the might of
fire, different as his disposition was from that of rhetoricians?
Who in Grammar, which perfects our tongues in Greek and compiles
history, and presides over metres and legislates for poems? Who
in Philosophy, that really lofty and high reaching science, whether
practical and speculative, or in that part of it whose oppositions and
struggles are concerned with logical demonstrations; which is called
Dialectic, and in which it was more difficult to elude his verbal
toils, if need required, than to escape from the Labyrinths?44354435Labyrinths, the
mythical mazes of Crete, the home of the Minotaur. Of Astronomy, Geometry, and numerical
proportion he had such a grasp, that he could not be baffled by those
who are clever in such sciences: excessive application to them he
despised, as useless to those whose desire is godliness: so that
it is possible to admire what he chose more than what he neglected, or
what he neglected more than what he chose. Medicine, the result
of philosophy and laboriousness, was rendered necessary for him by his
physical delicacy, and his care of the sick. From these
beginnings he attained to a mastery of the art, not only in its
empirical and practical branches, but also in its theory and
principles. But what are these, illustrious though they be,
compared with the moral discipline of the man? To those who have
had experience of him, Minos and Rhadamanthus44364436Minos and
Rhadamanthus, Kings of Crete and Lycia, fabled to have been made
judges in the lower world because of their justice when on earth.
were mere trifles, whom the Greeks thought worthy of the meadows of
Asphodel and the Elysian plains, which are their representations of our
Paradise, derived from those books of Moses which are also ours, for
though their terms are different, this is what they refer to under
other names.

24. Such was the case, and his galleon was
laden with all the learning attainable by the nature of man; for beyond
Cadiz44374437Beyond
Cadiz. The Atlantic Ocean beyond Cadiz was reputed impassable
by the ancients. there is no passage. There was left no
other need but that of rising to a more perfect life, and grasping
those hopes upon which we were agreed. The day of our departure
was at hand, with its attendant speeches of farewell, and of escort,
its invitations to return, its lamentations, embraces and tears.
For there is nothing so painful to any one, as is separation from
Athens and one another, to those who have been comrades there. On
that occasion was seen a piteous spectacle, worthy of record.
Around us were grouped our fellow students and classmates and some of
our teachers, protesting amid entreaties, violence, and persuasion,
that, whatever happened, they would not let us go; saying and doing
everything that men in distress could do. And here I will bring
an accusation against myself, and also, daring though it be, against
that divine and irreproachable soul. For he, by detailing the
reasons of his anxiety to return home, was able to prevail over their
desire to retain him, and they were compelled, though with reluctance,
to agree to his departure. But I was left behind at Athens,
partly, to say the truth, because I had been prevailed on—partly
because he had betrayed me, having been persuaded to forsake and hand
over to his captors one who refused to forsake him. A thing
incredible, before it happened. For 404it was like cutting one body into two, to the
destruction of either part, or the severance of two bullocks who have
shared the same manger and the same yoke, amid pitiable bellowings
after one another in protest against the separation. However, my
loss was not of long duration, for I could not long bear to be seen in
piteous plight, nor to have to account to every one for our
separation: so, after a brief stay at Athens, my longing desire
made me, like the horse in Homer, to burst the bonds of those who
restrained me, and prancing o’er the plains, rush to my mate.

25. Upon our return, after a slight
indulgence to the world and the stage, sufficient to gratify the
general desire, not from any inclination to theatrical display, we soon
became independent, and, after being promoted from the rank of
beardless boys to that of men, made bold advances along the road of
philosophy, for though no longer together, since envy would not allow
this, we were united by our eager desire. The city of
Cæsarea took possession of him, as a second founder and patron,
but in course of time he was occasionally absent, as a matter of
necessity due to our separation, and with a view to our determined
course of philosophy. Dutiful attendance on my aged parents, and
a succession of misfortunes kept me apart from him, perhaps without
right or justice, but so it was. And to this cause I am inclined
to ascribe all the inconsistency and difficulty which have befallen my
life, and the hindrances in the way of philosophy, which have been
unworthy of my desire and purpose. But as for my fate, let it
lead whither God pleases, only may its course be the better for his
intercessions. As regards himself, the manifold love of God
toward man,44384438Tit. iii. 4. and His
providential care for our race did, after shewing forth his merits
under many intervening circumstances with ever greater brilliancy, set
him up as a conspicuous and celebrated light for the Church, by
advancing him to the holy thrones of the priesthood, to blaze forth,
through the single city of Cæsarea, to the whole world. And
in what manner? Not by precipitate advancement, nor by at once
cleansing and making him wise, as is the wont of many present
candidates for preferment: but bestowing upon him the honour in
the due order of spiritual advancement.

26. For I do not praise the disorder and
irregularity which sometimes exist among us, even in those who preside
over the sanctuary. I do not venture, nor is it just, to accuse
them all. I approve the nautical custom, which first gives the
oar to the future steersman, and afterward leads him to the stern, and
entrusts him with the command, and seats him at the helm, only after a
long course of striking the sea and observing the winds. As is
the case again in military affairs: private, captain,
general. This order is the best and most advantageous for their
subordinates. And if it were so in our case, it would be of great
service. But, as it is, there is a danger of the holiest of all
offices being the most ridiculous among us. For promotion depends
not upon virtue, but upon villany; and the sacred thrones fall not to
the most Worthy, but to the most powerful. Samuel, the seer into
futurity, is among the prophets: but Saul, the rejected one, is
also there. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, is among the kings, but
so also is Jeroboam, the slave and apostate. And there is not a
physician, or a painter who has not first studied the nature of
diseases, or mixed many colours, or practised drawing: but a
prelate is easily found, without laborious training, with a reputation
of recent date, being sown and springing up in a moment, as the
legend44394439The legend,
i.e., of Cadmus who sowed at Thebes the dragon’s teeth from which
sprung giants. of the giants
goes. We manufacture those who are holy in a day, and bid those
to be wise, who have had no instruction, and have contributed nothing
before to their dignity, except the will. So one man is content
with an inferior position, and abides in his low estate, who is worthy
of a lofty one, and has meditated much on the inspired words, and has
reduced the flesh by many laws into subjection to the spirit:
while the other haughtily takes precedence, and raises his eyebrow over
his betters, and does not tremble at his position, nor is he appalled
at the sight, seeing the disciplined man beneath him; and wrongly
supposes himself to be his superior in wisdom as well as in rank,
having lost his senses under the influence of his position.

27. Not so our great and illustrious
Basil. In this grace, as in all others, he was a public
example. For he first read to the people the sacred books, while
already able to expound them, nor did he deem himself worthy of this
rank44404440This rank,
i.e., the office of Lector, or Reader. in the sanctuary, and thus proceeded to
praise the Lord in the seat of the Presbyters,44414441Ps. cvii. 32.
and next in that of the Bishops, attaining the office neither by
stealth nor by violence, instead of seeking for the honour, being
sought 405for by it, and
receiving it not as a human favour, but as from God and divine.
The account of his bishopric must be deferred: over his
subordinate ministry let us linger a while, for indeed it had almost
escaped me, in the midst of my discourse.

28. There arose a disagreement between him
and his predecessor44424442His
predecessor, Eusebius, Archbishop of Cæsarea. in the rule over
this Church: its source and character it is best to pass over in
silence, yet it arose. He was a man in other respects far from
ignoble, and admirable for his piety, as was proved by the persecution
of that time, and the opposition to him, yet his feeling against Basil
was one to which men are liable. For Momus seizes not only upon
the common herd, but on the best of men, so that it belongs to God
alone to be utterly uninfluenced by and proof against such
feelings. All the more eminent and wise portion of the Church was
roused against him, if those are wiser than the majority who have
separated themselves from the world and consecrated their life to
God. I mean the Nazarites44434443Nazarites,
i.e., the monks. of our day,
and those who devote themselves to such pursuits. They were
annoyed that their chief44444444Their chief,
i.e., Basil. should be
neglected, insulted, and rejected, and they ventured upon a most
dangerous proceeding. They determined to revolt and break off
from the body of the Church, which admits of no faction, severing along
with themselves no small fraction of the people, both of the lower
ranks, and of those of position. This was most easy, owing to
three very strong reasons. In the first place, the man was held
in repute, beyond any other, I think, of the philosophers of our time,
and able, if he wished, to inspire with courage the conspirators.
Next, his opponent44454445His opponent,
lit. “the man who was vexing him,” i.e., Eusebius. was suspected by
the city, in consequence of the tumult which accompanied his
institution, of having obtained his preferment in an arbitrary manner,
not according to the laws and canons. Also there were present
some of the bishops44464446Bishops.
It is uncertain who these bishops were. Clémencet thinks
they were Lucifer and Eusebius of Vercellæ. But a separation
had ere this taken place between them in consequence of Lucifer’s
rash action at Antioch. Nor is it certain that Eusebius had not
already returned to Italy. of the West,
drawing to themselves all the orthodox members of the
Church.

29. What then did our noble friend, the
disciple of the Peaceable One? It was not his habit to resist his
traducers or partisans, nor was it his part to fight, or rend the body
of the Church, which was from other reasons the subject of attack, and
hardly bestead, from the great power of the heretics. With my
advice and earnest encouragement on the point, he set out from the
place with me into Pontus, and presided over the abodes of
contemplation there. He himself too founded one44474447One, a
monastery. The rule of S. Basil is widely observed to this day in
Eastern monasteries. Cf. § 34. worthy of mention, as he welcomed the desert
together with Elijah and John,44484448John, Saint
John Baptist. those professors of
austerity; thinking this to be more profitable for him than to form any
design in reference to the present juncture unworthy of his philosophy,
and to ruin in a time of storm the straight course which he was making,
where the surges of disputation were lulled to a calm. Yet
wonderfully philosophic though his retirement was, we shall find his
return still more wonderful. For thus it was.

30. While we were thus engaged, there
suddenly arose a cloud full of hail, with destructive roar,
overwhelming every Church upon which it burst and seized: an
Emperor,44494449An Emperor,
Valens. most fond of gold
and most hostile to Christ, infected with these two most serious
diseases, insatiate avarice and blasphemy; a persecutor in succession
to the persecutor, and, in succession to the apostate, not indeed an
apostate, though no better to Christians, or rather, to the more devout
and pure party of Christians, who worship the Trinity, which I call the
only true devotion and saving doctrine. For we do not measure out
the Godhead into portions, nor banish from Itself by unnatural
estrangements the one and unapproachable Nature; nor cure one evil by
another, destroying the godless confusion of Sabellius by a more
impious severance and division; which was the error of Arius, whose
name declares his madness,44504450Madness, cf.
ii. 37, Note. the disturber and
destroyer of a great part of the Church. For he did not honour
the Father, by dishonouring His offspring with his unequal degrees of
Godhead. But we recognize one glory44514451Glory.
The word δόξα
means both “doctrine” and “glory.” of
the Father, the equality of the Only-begotten; and one glory of the
Son, that of the Spirit. And we hold that, to subordinate any of
the Three, is to destroy the whole. For we worship and
acknowledge Them as Three in their properties,44524452Properties. ἰδιότητες.
Petav. de Trin. iv. Proem. § 2 gives other Greek equivalent
terms. The Latin terms are “notiones” (S.
Thom. Aq. Summa. I. xxxii. qu. 2), “proprietates” or
relationes. They denote those relative “attributes
ad intra” which distinguish the Persons, if they do not actually
constitute the Personality of each of the Three Divine Persons.
They are five in number, Unbegottenness, Paternity, Filiation, active
and passive Spiration. Perhaps the nearest English equivalent is
“characteristic (or distinctive) relations.”—Cf.
Orat. xlii. 15.
but One in their Godhead. He however had no such idea, being
unable to look 406up, but being
debased by those who led him, he dared to debase along with himself
even the Nature of the Godhead, and became a wicked creature reducing
Majesty to bondage, and aligning with creation the uncreated and
timeless Nature.

31. Such was his mind, and with such impiety he
took the field against us. For we must consider it to be nothing
else than a barbaric inroad which, instead of destroying walls, cities
and houses, and other things of little worth, made with hands and
capable of restoration, spent its ravages upon men’s souls.
A worthy army joined in his assault, the evil rulers of the Churches,
the bitter governors of his world-wide Empire. Some of the
Churches they now held, some they were assaulting, others they hoped to
gain by the already exercised influence of the Emperor, and the
violence which he threatened. But in their purpose of perverting
our own, their confidence was specially based on the smallness of mind
of those whom I have mentioned, the inexperience of our prelate, and
the infirmities which prevailed among us. The struggle would be
fierce: the zeal of numerous troops was far from ignoble, but
their array was weak, from the want of a leader and strategist to
contend for them with the might of the Word and of the Spirit.
What then did this noble and magnanimous and truly Christ-loving
soul? No need of many words to urge his presence and aid.
At once when he saw me on my mission, for the struggle on behalf of the
faith was common to us both, he yielded to my entreaty; and decided by
a most excellent distinction, based on spiritual reasons, that the time
for punctiliousness (if indeed we may give way to such feelings at all)
is a time of security, but that forbearance is required in the hour of
necessity. He immediately returned with me from Pontus, and as a
zealous volunteer took his place in the fight for the endangered truth,
and devoted himself to the service of his mother, the Church.

32. Did then his actual efforts fall short
of his preliminary zeal? Were they directed by courage, but not
by prudence, or by skill, while he shrank from danger? Or, in
spite of their unexampled perfection on all these points, was there
left in him some trace of irritation? Far from it. He was
at once completely reconciled, and took part in every plan and
effort. He removed all the thorns and stumbling blocks which were
in our way, upon which the enemy relied in their attack upon us.
He took hold of one, grasped another, thrust away a third. He
became to some a stout wall and rampart,44534453Jer. i. 18. to
others an axe breaking the rock in pieces,44544454Ib. xxiii.
29. or
a fire among the thorns,44554455Ps. cxviii. 12. as the divine
Scripture says, easily destroying those fagots who were insulting the
Godhead. And if his Barnabas, who speaks and records these
things, was of service to Paul in the struggle, it is to Paul that
thanks are due, for choosing and making him his comrade in the
strife.

33. Thus the enemy failed, and, base men as they
were, for the first time were then basely put to shame and worsted,
learning not to be ready to despise the Cappadocians, of all men in the
world, whose special qualities are firmness in the faith, and loyal
devotion to the Trinity; to Whom is due their unity and strength, and
from Whom they receive an even greater and stronger assistance than
they are able to give. Basil’s next business and purpose
was to conciliate the prelate, to allay suspicion, to persuade all men
that the irritation which had been felt was due to the temptation and
effort of the Evil one, in his envy of virtuous concord:
carefully complying with the laws of obedience and spiritual
order. Accordingly he visited him, with instruction and
advice. While obedient to his wishes, he was everything to him, a
good counsellor, a skilful assistant, an expounder of the Divine Will,
a guide of conduct, a staff for his old age, a support of the faith,
most trusty of those within, most practical of those without, in a
word, as much inclined to goodwill, as he had been thought to
hostility. And so the power of the Church came into his hands
almost, if not quite, to an equal degree with the occupant of the
see. For in return for his good-will, he was requited with
authority. And their harmony and combination of power was
wonderful. The one was the leader of the people, the other of
their leader, like a lion-keeper, skilfully soothing the possessor of
power. For, having been recently installed in the see, and still
somewhat under the influence of the world, and not yet furnished with
the things of the Spirit, in the midst of the eddying tide of enemies
assaulting the Church, he was in need of some one to take him by the
hand and support him. Accordingly he accepted the alliance, and
imagined himself the conqueror of one who had conquered him.

34. Of his care for and protection of the Church,
there are many other tokens; his boldness towards the governors and
other 407most powerful men in
the city: the decisions of disputes, accepted without hesitation,
and made effective by his simple word, his inclination being held to be
decisive: his support of the needy, most of them in spiritual,
not a few also in physical distress: for this also often
influences the soul and reduces it to subjection by its kindness; the
support of the poor, the entertainment of strangers, the care of
maidens; legislation44564456Legislation. Cf. § 30. written and
unwritten for the monastic life: arrangements of
prayers,44574457Prayers.
The liturgy of S. Basil together with that of S. Chrysostom are still
the authorized liturgies of the Eastern Church. adornments of the
sanctuary, and other ways in which the true man of God, working for
God, would benefit the people: one being especially important and
noteworthy. There was a famine, the most severe one ever
recorded. The city was in distress, and there was no source of
assistance, or relief for the calamity. For maritime cities are
able to bear such times of need without difficulty, by an exchange of
their own products for what is imported: but an inland city like
ours can neither turn its superfluity to profit, nor supply its need,
by either disposing of what we have, or importing what we have
not: but the hardest part of all such distress is, the
insensibility and insatiability of those who possess supplies.
For they watch their opportunities, and turn the distress to profit,
and thrive upon misfortune: heeding not that he who shows mercy
to the poor, lendeth to the Lord,44584458Prov. xix. 17. nor that he
that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him:44594459Ib. xi.
26. nor any other of the promises to the
philanthropic, and threats against the inhuman. But they are too
insatiate, in their ill-judged policy; for while they shut up their
bowels against their fellows, they shut up those of God against
themselves, forgetting that their need of Him is greater than
others’ need of them. Such are the buyers and sellers of
corn, who neither respect their fellows, nor are thankful to God, from
Whom comes what they have, while others are straitened.

35. He indeed could neither rain bread from
heaven by prayer,44604460Exod. xvi. 15. to nourish an
escaped people in the wilderness,44614461Ps. lxxviii. 24. nor supply
fountains of food without cost from the depth of vessels which are
filled by being emptied,446244621 Kings xvii. 14. and so, by an
amazing return for her hospitality, support one who supported him; nor
feed thousands of men with five loaves whose very fragments were a
further supply for many tables.44634463 S. Matt. xiv. 19. These
were the works of Moses and Elijah, and my God, from Whom they too
derived their power. Perhaps also they were characteristic of
their time and its circumstances: since signs are for unbelievers
not for those who believe.446444641 Cor. xiv. 22. But he did
devise and execute with the same faith things which correspond to them,
and tend in the same direction. For by his word and advice he
opened the stores of those who possessed them, and so, according to the
Scripture dealt food to the hungry,44654465Isai. lviii. 7. and satisfied
the poor with bread,44664466Ps. cxxxii. 15. and fed them in the
time of dearth,44674467Ib. xxxiii.
19. and filled the
hungry souls with good things.44684468Ib.
cvii. 9; S. Luke i. 53. And in what
way? for this is no slight addition to his praise. He gathered
together the victims of the famine with some who were but slightly
recovering from it, men and women, infants, old men, every age which
was in distress, and obtaining contributions of all sorts of food which
can relieve famine, set before them basins of soup and such meat as was
found preserved among us, on which the poor live. Then, imitating
the ministry of Christ, Who, girded with a towel, did not disdain to
wash the disciples’ feet, using for this purpose the aid of his
own servants, and also of his fellow servants, he attended to the
bodies and souls of those who needed it, combining personal respect
with the supply of their necessity, and so giving them a double
relief.

36. Such was our young furnisher of corn,
and second Joseph: though of him we can say somewhat more.
For the one made a gain from the famine, and bought up Egypt44694469Gen. xli. 1 et seq. in his philanthropy, by managing the time of
plenty with a view to the time of famine, turning to account the dreams
of others for that purpose. But the other’s services were
gratuitous, and his succour of the famine gained no profit, having only
one object, to win kindly feelings by kindly treatment, and to gain by
his rations of corn the heavenly blessings. Further he provided
the nourishment of the Word, and that more perfect bounty and
distribution, which is really heavenly and from on high—if the
word be that bread of angels,44704470Ps. lxxviii. 25. wherewith souls are
fed and given to drink, who are a hungered for God,44714471Ib.
lxiii. 1; S. Matt. v. 6. and seek for a food which does not pass away
or fail, but abides forever. This food he, who was the poorest
and most needy man whom I have known, supplied in rich abundance to the
relief not of a famine of bread, 408nor of a thirst for water, but a longing
for that Word44724472Amos viii. 11. which is really
lifegiving and nourishing, and causes to grow to spiritual manhood him
who is duly fed thereon.

37. After these and similar
actions—why need I stay to mention them all?—when the
prelate whose name44734473Name, Eusebius,
i.e., “pious,” “godly.” betokened his
godliness had passed away, having sweetly breathed his last in
Basil’s arms, he was raised to the lofty throne of a Bishop, not
without difficulty or without the envious struggles of the prelates of
his native land, on whose side were found the greatest scoundrels of
the city. But the Holy Spirit must needs win the day—and
indeed the victory was decisive. For He brought from a distance,
to anoint him, men44744474Men.
Eusebius of Samosaba and S. Gregory the Elder. illustrious and
zealous for godliness, and with them the new Abraham, our Patriarch, I
mean my father, in regard to whom an extraordinary thing
happened. For, failing as he was from the number of his years,
and worn away almost to his last breath by disease, he ventured on the
journey to give assistance by his vote, relying on the aid of the
Spirit. In brief, he was placed in his litter, as a corpse is
laid in its tomb, to return in the freshness and strength of youth,
with head erect, having been strengthened by the imposition of hands
and unction, and, it is not too much to say by the head of him who was
anointed. This must be added to the instances of old time, which
prove that labour bestows health, zealous purpose raises the dead, and
old age leaps up when anointed by the Spirit.

38. Having thus been deemed worthy of the
office of prelate, as it is seemly that men should who have lived such
a life, and won such favour and consideration, he did not disgrace, by
his subsequent conduct, either his own philosophy, or the hopes of
those who had trusted him. But he ever so far surpassed himself
as he has been shown hitherto to have surpassed others, his ideas on
this point being most excellent and philosophic. For he held
that, while it is virtuous in a private individual to avoid vice, and
be to some extent good, it is a vice in a chief and ruler, especially
in such an office, to fail to surpass by far the majority of men, and
by constant progress to make his virtue correspond to his dignity and
throne: for it is difficult for one in high position to attain
the mean, and by his eminence in virtue raise up his people to the
golden mean. Or rather to treat this question more
satisfactorily, I think that the result is the same as I see in the
case of our Saviour, and of every specially wise man, I fancy, when He
was with us in that form which surpassed us and yet is ours. For
He also, the gospel says, increased in wisdom and favour, as well as in
stature,44754475 S. Luke ii. 52. not that these
qualities in Him were capable of growth: for how could that which
was perfect from the first become more perfect, but that they were
gradually disclosed and displayed? So I think that the virtue of
Basil, without being itself increased, obtained at this time a wider
exercise, since his power provided him with more abundant
material.

39. He first of all made it plain that his
office had been bestowed upon him, not by human favour, but by the gift
of God. This will also be shown by my conduct. For in what
philosophic research did he not, about that time, join with me?
So every one thought that I should run to meet him after what had
happened, and show my delight at it (as would, perhaps, have been the
case with any one else) and claim a share in his authority, rather than
rule beside him, according to the inferences they drew from our
friendship. But, in my exceeding anxiety to avoid the annoyance
and jealousy of the time, and specially since his position was still a
painful and troubled one, I remained at home, and forcibly restrained
my eager desire, while, though he blamed me, Basil accepted my
excuse. And when, on my subsequent arrival, I refused, for the
same reason the honour of this chair, and a dignified position44764476Dignified
position, known later as that of Vicar General.
Thomassin. Disc. Eccl. I. ii. 7. § 3. among the Presbyters, he kindly refrained
from blaming, nay he praised me, preferring to be charged with pride by
a small clique, in their ignorance of our policy, rather than do
anything contrary to reason and his own resolutions. And indeed,
how could a man have better shown his soul to be superior to all
fawning and flattery, and his single object to be the law of right,
than by thus treating me, whom he acknowledged as among the first of
his friends and associates?

40. His next task was to appease, and allay by
magnanimous treatment, the opposition to himself: and that
without any trace of flattery or servility, but in a most chivalrous
and magnanimous way; with a view, not merely to present exigencies, but
also to the fostering of future obedience. For, seeing that,
while tenderness leads to laxity and slackness, severity gives rise to
stubbornness and self-will, he was able to avoid the dangers of each
course 409by a combination of both,
blending his correction with consideration, and gentleness with
firmness, influencing men in most cases principally by his conduct
rather than by argument: not enslaving them by art, but winning
them by good nature, and attracting them by the sparing use, rather
than by the constant exercise, of his power. And, most important
of all, they were brought to recognize the superiority of his intellect
and the inaccessibility of his virtue, to consider their only safety to
consist in being on his side and under his command, their sole danger
to be in opposition to him, and to think that to differ from him
involved estrangement from God. Thus they willingly yielded and
surrendered, submitting themselves, as if in a thunder-clap, and
hastening to anticipate each other with their excuses, and exchange the
intensity of their hostility for an equal intensity of goodwill, and
advance in virtue, which they found to be the one really effective
defence. The few exceptions to this conduct were passed by and
neglected, because their ill-nature was incurable, and they expended
their powers in wearing out themselves, as rust consumes itself
together with the iron on which it feeds.

41. Affairs at home being now settled to his
mind, in a way that faithless men who did not know him would have
thought impossible, his designs became greater and took a loftier
range. For, while all others had their eyes on the ground before
them, and directed attention to their own immediate concerns, and, if
these were safe, troubled themselves no further, being incapable of any
great and chivalrous design or undertaking; he, moderate as he was in
all other respects, could not be moderate in this, but with head erect,
casting his mental eye about him, took in the whole world over which
the word of salvation has made its way. And when he saw the great
heritage of God, purchased by His own words and laws and sufferings,
the holy nation, the royal priesthood,447744771 Pet. ii. 9. in
such evil plight that it was torn asunder into ten thousand opinions
and errors: and the vine brought out of Egypt and
transplanted,44784478Ps. lxxx. 9. the Egypt of
impious and dark ignorance, which had grown to such beauty and
boundless size that the whole earth was covered with the shadow of it,
while it overtopped mountains and cedars, now being ravaged by that
wicked wild boar, the devil, he could not content himself with quietly
lamenting the misfortune, and merely lifting up his hands to God, and
seeking from Him the dispersion of the pressing misfortunes, while he
himself was asleep, but felt bound to come to her aid at some expense
to himself.

42. For what could be more distressing than
this calamity, or call more loudly on one whose eyes were raised aloft
for exertions on behalf of the common weal? The good or ill
success of an individual is of no consequence to the community, but
that of the community involves of necessity the like condition of the
individual. With this idea and purpose, he who was the guardian
and patron of the community (and, as Solomon says with truth, a
perceptive heart is a moth to the bones,44794479Prov. xiv. 30 (LXX.).
unsensitiveness is cheerily confident, while a sympathetic disposition
is a source of pain, and constant consideration wastes away the heart),
he, I say, was consequently in agony and distress from many wounds;
like Jonah and David, he wished in himself to die44804480Jonah iv. 8. and gave not sleep to his eyes, nor slumber
to his eyelids,44814481Ps. cxxxii. 4. he expended what
was left of his flesh upon his reflections, until he discovered a
remedy for the evil: and sought for aid from God and man, to stay
the general conflagration, and dissipate the gloom which was lowering
over us.

43. One of his devices was of the greatest
service. After a period of such recollection as was possible, and
private spiritual conference, in which, after considering all human
arguments, and penetrating into all the deep things of the Scriptures,
he drew up a sketch of pious doctrine, and by wrestling with and
attacking their opposition he beat off the daring assaults of the
heretics: overthrowing in hand to hand struggles by word of mouth
those who came to close quarters, and striking those at a distance by
arrows winged with ink, which is in no wise inferior to inscriptions on
tablets; not giving directions for one small nation only like that of
the Jews, concerning meats and drinks, temporary sacrifices, and
purifications of the flesh;44824482Heb. ix. 10. but for every
nation and part of the world, concerning the Word of truth, the source
of our salvation. Again, since unreasoning action and unpractical
reasoning are alike ineffectual, he added to his reasoning the succour
which comes from action; he paid visits, sent messages, gave
interviews, instructed, reproved, rebuked,448344832 Tim. iv. 2.
threatened, reproached, undertook the defence of nations, cities and
individuals, devising every kind of succour, and procuring from every
source specifics for disease: a second Bezaleel, an
410architect of the Divine
tabernacle,44844484Exod. xxxi. 2. applying every
material and art to the work, and combining all in a harmonious and
surpassing beauty.

44. Why need I enter into further
detail? We were assailed again by the Anti-Christian
Emperor,44854485Emperor.
Valens. that tyrant of the
faith, with more abundant impiety and a hotter onset, inasmuch as the
dispute must be with a stronger antagonist, like that unclean and evil
spirit, who when sent forth upon his wanderings from man, returns to
take up his abode in him again with a greater number of spirits, as we
have heard in the Gospels.44864486 S. Luke xi. 24. This spirit
he imitated, both in renewing the contest in which he had formerly been
worsted, and in adding to his original efforts. He thought that
it was a strange and insufferable thing that he, who ruled over so many
nations and had won so much renown, and reduced under the power of
impiety all those round about him, and overcome every adversary, should
be publicly worsted by a single man, and a single city, and so incur
the ridicule not only of those patrons of ungodliness by whom he was
led, but also, as he supposed, of all men.

45. It is said that the King44874487King.
Xerxes. of Persia, on his expedition into Greece,
was not only urged to immoderate threats, by elation at the numbers of
every race of men which in his wrath and pride he was leading against
them: but thought to terrify them the more, by making them afraid
of him, in consequence of his novel treatment of the elements. A
strange land and sea were heard of, the work of the new creator; and an
army which sailed over the dry land, and marched over the ocean, while
islands were carried off, and the sea was scourged, and all the other
mad proceedings of that army and expedition, which, though they struck
terror into the ignoble, were ridiculous in the eyes of men of brave
and steadfast hearts. There was no need of anything of this kind
in the expedition against us, but what was still worse and more
harmful, this was what the Emperor was reported to say and do. He
stretched forth his mouth unto heaven, speaking blasphemy against the
most High, and his tongue went through the world.44884488Ps. lxxiii. 9. Excellently did the inspired David
before our days thus describe him who made heaven to stoop to earth,
and reckoned with the creation that supermundane nature, which the
creation cannot even contain, even though in kindness to man it did to
some extent come among us, in order to draw to itself us who were lying
upon the ground.

46. Furious indeed were his first acts of
wantonness, more furious still his final efforts against us. What
shall I speak of first? Exiles, banishments, confiscations, open
and secret plots, persuasion, where time allowed, violence, where
persuasion was impossible. Those who clung to the orthodox faith,
as we did, were extruded from their churches; others were intruded, who
agreed with the Imperial soul-destroying doctrines, and begged for
testimonials of impiety, and subscribed to statements still harder than
these. Burnings44894489Burnings,
a.d. 370. Eighty ecclesiastics, sent on
a mission to Valens at Nicomedia, were by his orders sent to sea off
the coast of Bithynia, and, the vessel being set on fire, were burnt to
death. of Presbyters at
sea, impious generals, not those who conquered the Persians, or subdued
the Scythians, or reduced any other barbaric nation, but those who
assailed churches, and danced in triumph upon altars, and defiled the
unbloody sacrifices with the blood of man and victims, and offered
insult to the modesty of virgins. With what object? The
extrusion of the Patriarch Jacob,44904490Jacob, i.e.,
Athanasius. Esau = George. and the
intrusion in his place of Esau, who was hated,44914491Rom. ix. 11.
even before his birth. This is the description of his first acts
of wantonness, the mere recollection and mention of which even now,
rouses the tears of most of us.

47. Accordingly, when, after passing through all
quarters, he made his attack in order to enslave this impregnable and
formidable mother of the Churches, the only still remaining unquenched
spark of the truth, he discovered that he had been for the first time
ill advised. For he was driven back like a missile which strikes
upon some stronger body, and recoiled like a broken hawser. Such
was the prelate of the Church that he met with, such was the bulwark by
which his efforts were broken and dissipated. Other particulars
may be heard from those who tell and recount them, from their own
experience—and none of those who recount them is destitute of
this full experience. But all must be filled with admiration who
are aware of the struggles of that time, the assaults, the promises,
the threats, the commissioners sent before him to try to prevail upon
us, men of judicial and military rank, men from the harem, who are men
among women, women among men, whose only manliness consisted in their
impiety, and being incapable of natural licentiousness, commit
fornication in the only way they can, with their tongues; the chief
cook 411Nebuzaradan,44924492Nebuzaradan. Demosthenes, a creature of Valens, sent to
persuade Basil to yield to the Emperor. who threatened us with the weapons of his
art, and was despatched by his own fire. But what especially
excites my wonder, and what I could not, even if I would, pass by, I
will describe as concisely as possible.

48. Who has not heard of the
prefect44934493Prefect.
Modestus. of those days, who,
for his own part, treated us with such excessive arrogance, having
himself been admitted, or perhaps committed, to baptism by the other
party; and strove by exceeding the letter of his instructions, and
gratifying his master in every particular, to guarantee and preserve
his own possession of power. Though he raged against the Church,
and assumed a lion-like aspect, and roared like a lion till most men
dared not approach him, yet our noble prelate was brought into or
rather entered his court, as if bidden to a feast, instead of to a
trial. How can I fully describe, either the arrogance of the
prefect or the prudence with which it was met by the Saint.
“What is the meaning, Sir Basil,” he said, addressing him
by name, and not as yet deigning to term him Bishop, “of your
daring, as no other dares, to resist and oppose so great a
potentate?” “In what respect?” said our noble
champion, “and in what does my rashness consist? For this I
have yet to learn.” “In refusing to respect the
religion of your Sovereign, when all others have yielded and submitted
themselves?” “Because,” said he, “this is
not the will of my real Sovereign; nor can I, who am the creature of
God, and bidden myself to be God, submit to worship any
creature.” “And what do we,” said the prefect,
“seem to you to be? Are we, who give you this injunction,
nothing at all? What do you say to this? Is it not a great
thing to be ranged with us as your associates?” “You
are, I will not deny it,” said he, “a prefect, and an
illustrious one, yet not of more honour than God. And to be
associated with you is a great thing, certainly; for you are yourself
the creature of God; but so it is to be associated with any other of my
subjects. For faith, and not personal importance, is the
distinctive mark of Christianity.”

49. Then indeed the prefect became excited, and
rose from his seat, boiling with rage, and making use of harsher
language. “What?” said he, “have you no fear of
my authority? “Fear of what?” said Basil, “How
could it affect me?” “Of what? Of any one of
the resources of my power.” “What are these?”
said Basil, “pray, inform me.” “Confiscation,
banishment, torture, death.” “Have you no other
threat?” said he, “for none of these can reach
me.” “How indeed is that?” said the
prefect. “Because,” he replied, “a man who has
nothing, is beyond the reach of confiscation; unless you demand my
tattered rags, and the few books, which are my only possessions.
Banishment is impossible for me, who am confined by no limit of place,
counting my own neither the land where I now dwell, nor all of that
into which I may be hurled; or, rather, counting it all God’s,
whose guest and dependent I am. As for tortures, what hold can
they have upon one whose body has ceased to be? Unless you mean
the first stroke, for this alone is in your power. Death is my
benefactor, for it will send me the sooner to God, for Whom I live, and
exist, and have all but died, and to Whom I have long been
hastening.”

50. Amazed at this language, the prefect said,
“No one has ever yet spoken thus, and with such boldness, to
Modestus.” “Why, perhaps,” said Basil,
“you have not met with a Bishop, or in his defence of such
interests he would have used precisely the same language. For we
are modest in general, and submissive to every one, according to the
precept of our law. We may not treat with haughtiness even any
ordinary person, to say nothing of so great a potentate. But
where the interests of God are at stake, we care for nothing else, and
make these our sole object. Fire and sword and wild beasts, and
rakes which tear the flesh, we revel in, and fear them not. You
may further insult and threaten us, and do whatever you will, to the
full extent of your power. The Emperor himself may hear
this—that neither by violence nor persuasion will you bring us to
make common cause with impiety, not even though your threats become
still more terrible.”

51. At the close of this colloquy, the prefect,
having been convinced by the attitude of Basil, that he was absolutely
impervious to threats and influence, dismissed him from the court, his
former threatening manner being replaced by somewhat of respect and
deference. He himself with all speed obtained an audience of the
Emperor, and said: “We have been worsted, Sire, by the
prelate of this Church. He is superior to threats, invincible in
argument, uninfluenced by persuasion. We must make trial of some
more feeble character; and in this case resort to open violence,
412or submit to the disregard of our
threatenings.” Hereupon the Emperor, forced by the praises
of Basil to condemn his own conduct (for even an enemy can admire a
man’s excellence), would not allow violence to be used against
him: and, like iron, which is softened by fire, yet still remains
iron, though turned from threatening to admiration, would not enter
into communion with him, being prevented by shame from changing his
course, but sought to justify his conduct by the most plausible excuse
he could, as the sequel will show.

52. For he entered the Church attended by
the whole of his train; it was the festival of the Epiphany, and the
Church was crowded, and, by taking his place among the people, he made
a profession of unity. The occurrence is not to be lightly passed
over. Upon his entrance he was struck by the thundering roll of
the Psalms, by the sea of heads of the congregation, and by the angelic
rather than human order which pervaded the sanctuary and its
precincts: while Basil presided over his people, standing erect,
as the Scripture says of Samuel,449444941 Sam. xix. 20. with body and
eyes and mind undisturbed, as if nothing new had happened, but fixed
upon God and the sanctuary, as if, so to say, he had been a statue,
while his ministers stood around him in fear and reverence. At
this sight, and it was indeed a sight unparalleled, overcome by human
weakness, his eyes were affected with dimness and giddiness, his mind
with dread. This was as yet unnoticed by most people. But
when he had to offer the gifts at the Table of God, which he must needs
do himself, since no one would, as usual, assist him, because it was
uncertain whether Basil would admit him, his feelings were
revealed. For he was staggering, and had not some one in the
sanctuary reached out a hand to steady his tottering steps, he would
have sunk to the ground in a lamentable fall. So much for
this.

53. As for the wisdom of his conference with the
Emperor, who, in his quasi-communion with us entered within the veil to
see and speak to him, as he had long desired to do, what else can I say
but that they were inspired words, which were heard by the courtiers
and by us who had entered with them? This was the beginning and
first establishment of the Emperor’s kindly feeling towards us;
the impression produced by this reception put an end to the greater
part of the persecution which assailed us like a river.

54. Another incident is not of less
importance than those I have mentioned. The wicked were
victorious, and the decree for his banishment was signed, to the full
satisfaction of those who furthered it. The night had come, the
chariot was ready, our haters were exultant, the pious in despair, we
surrounded the zealous traveller, to whose honourable disgrace nothing
was wanting. What next? It was undone by God. For He
Who smote the first-born of Egypt,44954495Exod. xii. 29. for its
harshness towards Israel, also struck the son of the Emperor with
disease. How great was the speed! There was the sentence of
banishment, here the decree of sickness: the hand of the wicked
scribe was restrained, and the saint was preserved, and the man of
piety presented to us, by the fever which brought to reason the
arrogance of the Emperor. What could be more just or more speedy
than this? This was the series of events: the
Emperor’s child was sick and in bodily pain. The father was
pained for it, for what can the father do? On all sides he sought
for aid in his distress, he summoned the best physicians, he betook
himself to intercessions with the greatest fervour, and flung himself
upon the ground. Affliction humbles even emperors, and no wonder,
for the like sufferings of David in the case of his child are recorded
for us.449644962 Sam. xii. 16. But as no
cure for the evil could anywhere be found, he applied to the faith of
Basil, not personally summoning him, in shame for his recent ill
treatment, but entrusting the mission to others of his nearest and
dearest friends. On his arrival, without the delay or reluctance
which any one else might have shown, at once the disease relaxed, and
the father cherished better hopes; and had he not blended salt water
with the fresh, by trusting to the heterodox at the same time that he
summoned Basil, the child would have recovered his health and been
preserved for his father’s arms. This indeed was the
conviction of those who were present at the time, and shared in the
distress.

55. The same mischance is said to have befallen
the prefect. He also was obliged by sickness to bow beneath the
hands of the Saint, and, in reality, to men of sense a visitation
brings instruction, and affliction is often better than
prosperity. He fell sick, was in tears, and in pain, he sent for
Basil, and entreated him, crying out, “I own that you were in the
right; only save me!” His request was granted, as he
himself acknowledged, and convinced many who had known 413nothing of it; for he never ceased to
wonder at and describe the powers of the prelate. Such was his
conduct in these cases, such its result. Did he then treat others
in a different way, and engage in petty disputes about trifles, or fail
to rise to the heights of philosophy in a course of action which merits
no praise and is best passed over in silence? By no means.
He who once stirred up the wicked Hadad against Israel,449744971 Kings xi. 14. stirred up against him the prefect44984498The
prefect. Eusebius. of the province of Pontus; nominally, from
annoyance connected with some poor creature of a woman, but in reality
as a part of the struggle of impiety against the truth. I pass by
all his other insults against Basil, or, for it is the same thing,
against God; for it is against Him and on His behalf that the contest
was waged. One instance of it, however, which brought special
disgrace upon the assailant, and exalted his adversary, if philosophy
and eminence for it be a great and lofty thing, I will describe at
length.

56. The assessor of a judge was attempting to
force into a distasteful marriage a lady of high birth whose husband
was but recently dead. At a loss to escape from this high-handed
treatment, she resorted to a device no less prudent than daring.
She fled to the holy table, and placed herself under the protection of
God against outrage. What, in the Name of the Trinity Itself, if
I may introduce into my panegyric somewhat of the forensic style, ought
to have been done, I do not say, by the great Basil, who laid down the
law for us all in such matters, but by any one who, though far inferior
to him, was a priest? Ought he not to have allowed her claim, to
have taken charge of, and cared for, her; to have raised his hand in
defence of the kindness of God and the law which gives honour to the
altar? Ought he not to have been willing to do and suffer
anything, rather than take part in any inhuman design against her, and
outrage at once the holy table, and the faith in which she had taken
sanctuary? No! said the baffled judge, all ought to yield to my
authority, and Christians should betray their own laws. The
suppliant whom he demanded, was at all hazards retained.
Accordingly, in his rage, he at last sent some of the magistrates to
search the saint’s bedchamber, with the purpose of dishonouring
him, rather than from any necessity. What! Search the house
of a man so free from passion, whom the angels revere, at whom women do
not venture even to look? And, not content with this, he summoned
him, and put him on his defence; and that, in no gentle or kindly
manner, but as if he were a convict. Upon Basil’s
appearance, standing, like my Jesus, before the judgment seat of
Pilate, he presided at the trial, full of wrath and pride. Yet
the thunderbolts did not fall, and the sword of God still glittered,
and waited, while His bow, though bent, was restrained. Such
indeed is the custom of God.

57. Consider another struggle between our champion
and his persecutor. His ragged pallium having been ordered to be
torn away, “I will also, if you wish it, strip off my
coat,” said he. His fleshless form was threatened with
blows, and he offered to submit to be torn with combs, and he said,
“By such laceration you will cure my liver, which, as you see, is
wearing me away.” Such was their argument. But when
the city perceived the outrage and the common danger of all—for
each one considered this insolence a danger to himself, it became all
on fire with rage; and, like a hive roused by smoke, one after another
was stirred and arose, every race and every age, but especially the men
from the small-arms factory and from the imperial weaving-sheds.
For men at work in these trades are specially hot-tempered and daring,
because of the liberty allowed them. Each man was armed with the
tool he was using, or with whatever else came to hand at the
moment. Torch in hand, amid showers of stones, with
cudgel’s ready, all ran and shouted together in their united
zeal. Anger makes a terrible soldier or general. Nor were
the women weaponless, when roused by such an occasion. Their pins
were their spears, and no longer remaining women, they were by the
strength of their eagerness endowed with masculine courage. It is
a short story. They thought that they would share among
themselves the piety of destroying him, and held him to be most pious
who first laid hands on one who had dared such deeds. What then
was the conduct of this haughty and daring judge? He begged for
mercy in a pitiable state of distress, cringing before them to an
unparalleled extent, until the arrival of the martyr without bloodshed,
who had won his crown without blows, and now restrained the people by
the force of his personal influence, and delivered the man who had
insulted him and now sought his protection. This was the doing of
the God of Saints, Who worketh and changeth all things for the best,
who resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to 414the humble.44994499 S. James iv. 6. And why should not He, Who divided the
sea and stayed the river, and ruled the elements, and by stretching out
set up a trophy, to save His exiled people, why should not He have also
rescued this man from his perils?

58. This was the end and fortunate close, in
the Providence of God, of the war with the world, a close worthy of his
faith. But here at once is the beginning of the war with the
Bishops, and their allies, which involved great disgrace, and still
greater injury to their subjects. For who could persuade others
to be temperate, when such was the conduct of their prelates? For
a long time they had been unkindly disposed towards him, on three
grounds. They neither agreed with him in the matter of the faith,
except in so far as they were absolutely obliged to yield to the
majority of the faithful. Nor had they altogether laid aside the
grudge they owed him for his election. And, what was most
grievous of all to them, though they would have been most ashamed to
own it—he so far outshone them in reputation. There was
also a further cause of dissension which stirred up again the
others. When our country had been divided into two provinces and
metropolitical sees, and a great part of the former was being added to
the new one, this again roused their factious spirit. The
one45004500The one, i.e.,
Anthimus, Bishop of Tyana. thought it right that the ecclesiastical
boundaries should be settled by the civil ones: and therefore
claimed those newly added, as belonging to him, and severed from their
former metropolitan. The other45014501The other,
i.e., Basil. clung to the
ancient custom, and to the division which had come down from our
fathers. Many painful results either actually followed, or were
struggling in the womb of the future. Synods were wrongfully
gathered by the new metropolitan, and revenues seized upon. Some
of the presbyters of the churches refused obedience, others were won
over. In consequence the affairs of the churches fell into a sad
state of dissension and division. Novelty indeed has a certain
charm for men, and they readily turn events to their own advantage, and
it is easier to overthrow something which is already established, than
to restore it when overthrown. What however enraged him most was,
that the revenues45024502Revenues.
The dues and offerings of the people of the diocese. of the Taurus,
which passed along before his eyes, accrued to his rival, as also the
offerings at Saint Orestes’,45034503Orestes.
A chapel dedicated to S. Orestes at the foot of Mt. Taurus, where the
offerings were collected. of which he
was greatly desirous to reap the fruits. He even went so far as,
on one occasion when Basil was riding along his own road, to seize his
mules by the bridle and bar the passage with a robber band. And
with how specious a pretext, the care of his spiritual children and of
the souls entrusted to him, and the defence of the faith—pretexts
which veiled that most common vice, insatiable avarice—and
further, the wrongfulness of paying dues to heretics, a heretic being
any one who had displeased him.

59. The holy man of God however, metropolitan as
he was of the true Jerusalem above, was neither carried away with the
failure of those who fell, nor allowed himself to overlook this
conduct, nor did he desire any inadequate remedy for the evil.
Let us see how great and wonderful it was, or, I would say, how worthy
of his soul. He made of the dissension a cause of increase to the
Church, and the disaster, under his most able management, resulted in
the multiplication of the Bishops of the country. From this
ensued three most desirable consequences; a greater care for souls, the
management by each city of its own affairs, and the cessation of the
war in this quarter. I am afraid that I myself was treated as an
appendage to this scheme. By no other term can I readily describe
the position. Greatly as I admire his whole conduct, to an extent
indeed beyond my powers of expression, of this single particular I find
it impossible to approve, for I will acknowledge my feelings in regard
to it, though these are from other sources not unknown to most of
you. I mean the change and faithlessness of his treatment of
myself, a cause of pain which even time has not obliterated. For
this is the source of all the inconsistency and tangle of my life; it
has robbed me of the practice, or at least the reputation, of
philosophy; of small moment though the latter be. The defence,
which you will perhaps allow me to make for him, is this; his ideas
were superhuman, and having, before his death, become superior to
worldly influences, his only interests were those of the Spirit:
while his regard for friendship was in no wise lessened by his
readiness then, and then only, to disregard its claims, when they were
in conflict with his paramount duty to God, and when the end he had in
view was of greater importance than the interests he was compelled to
set aside.

60. I am afraid that, in avoiding the imputation
of indifference at the hands of those 415who desire to know all that can be said
about him, I shall incur a charge of prolixity from those whose ideal
is the golden mean. For the latter Basil himself had the greatest
respect, being specially devoted to the adage “In all things the
mean45044504The mean,
etc. A saying of Cleobulus, one of the seven Sages. is the best,” and acting upon it
throughout his life. Nevertheless, disregarding alike those who
desire undue conciseness or excessive prolixity, I proceed thus with my
speech. Different men attain success in different ways, some
applying themselves to one alone of the many forms of excellence, but
no one, of those hitherto known to me, arriving at the highest eminence
in all respects; he being in my opinion the best, who has won his
laurels on the widest field, or gained the highest possible renown in
some single particular. Such however was the height of
Basil’s fame, that he became the pride of human kind. Let
us consider the matter thus. Is any one devoted to poverty and a
life devoid of property, and free from superfluity? What did he
possess besides his body, and the necessary coverings of the
flesh? His wealth was the having nothing, and he thought the
cross, with which he lived, more precious than great riches. For
no one, however much he may wish, can obtain possession of all things,
but any one can learn to despise, and so prove himself superior to, all
things. Such being his mind, and such his life, he had no need of
an altar and of vainglory, nor of such a public announcement as
“Crates45054505Crates.
He made this proclamation when he had stripped himself of all his
possessions. sets Crates the
Theban free.” For his aim was ever to be, not to seem, most
excellent. Nor did he dwell in a tub,45064506In a tub, like
Diogenes, the Cynic.
and in the midst of the market-place, and so by luxuriating in
publicity turn his poverty into riches: but was poor and unkempt,
yet without ostentation: and taking cheerfully the casting
overboard of all that he ever had, sailed lightly across the sea of
life.

61. A wondrous thing is temperance, and
fewness of wants, and freedom from the dominion of pleasures, and from
the bondage of that cruel and degrading mistress, the belly. Who
was so independent of food, and, without exaggeration, more free from
the flesh? For he flung away all satiety and surfeit to creatures
destitute of reason, whose life is slavish and debasing. He paid
little attention to such things as, next to the appetite, are of equal
rank, but, as far as possible, lived on the merest necessaries, his
only luxury being to prove himself not luxurious, and not, in
consequence, to have greater needs: but he looked to the lilies
and the birds,45074507 S. Matt. vi. 26. whose beauty is
artless, and their food casual, according to the important advice of my
Christ, who made Himself poor450845082 Cor. viii. 9. in the flesh for
our sakes, that we might enjoy the riches of His Godhead. Hence
came his single coat and well worn cloak, and his bed on the bare
ground, his vigils, his unwashedness (such were his decorations) and
his most sweet food and relish, bread, and salt, his new dainty, and
the sober and plentiful drink, with which fountains supply those who
are free from trouble. The result, or the accompaniment, of these
things were the attendance on the sick and practice of medicine, our
common intellectual pursuit. For, though inferior to him in all
other respects, I must needs be his equal in distress.

62. A great thing is virginity, and
celibacy, and being ranked with the angels, and with the single nature;
for I shrink from calling it Christ’s, Who, though He willed to
be born for our sakes who are born, by being born of a Virgin,
enacted45094509Enacted by his
religious rule, or as some say by a treatise on Virginity. the law of
virginity, to lead us away from this life, and cut short the power of
the world, or rather, to transmit one world to another, the present to
the future. Who then paid more honour to virginity, or had more
control of the flesh, not only by his personal example, but in those
under his care? Whose are the convents, and the written
regulations, by which he subdued every sense, and regulated every
member, and won to the real practice of virginity, turning inward the
view of beauty, from the visible to the invisible; and by wasting away
the external, and withdrawing fuel from the flame, and revealing the
secrets of the heart to God, Who is the only bridegroom of pure souls,
and takes in with himself the watchful souls, if they go to meet him
with lamps burning and a plentiful supply of oil?45104510 S. Matt. xxv. 2. Moreover he reconciled most
excellently and united the solitary and the community life. These
had been in many respects at variance and dissension, while neither of
them was in absolute and unalloyed possession of good or evil:
the one being more calm and settled, tending to union with God, yet not
free from pride, inasmuch as its virtue lies beyond the means of
testing or comparison; the other, which is of more practical service,
being not free from the tendency to turbulence. He founded
cells45114511Cells,
etc. This passage strongly favours the view of Clemencet that
S. Gregory uses μοναστήρια
in the literal sense of “the abodes of solitaries,” and
that there is no great distinction between κοινωνικοί
and μιγάδες. Cf. ii.
29. xxi. 10–19. for ascetics 416and hermits, but at no great distance from his
cenobitic communities, and, instead of distinguishing and separating
the one from the other, as if by some intervening wall, he brought them
together and united them, in order that the contemplative spirit might
not be cut off from society, nor the active life be uninfluenced by the
contemplative, but that, like sea and land, by an interchange of their
several gifts, they might unite in promoting the one object, the glory
of God.

63. What more? A noble thing is
philanthropy, and the support of the poor, and the assistance of human
weakness. Go forth a little way from the city, and behold the new
city,45124512New
city—a hospital for the sick. the storehouse of piety, the common treasury
of the wealthy, in which the superfluities of their wealth, aye, and
even their necessaries, are stored, in consequence of his exhortations,
freed from the power of the moth,45134513 S. Matt. vi. 19. no longer
gladdening the eyes of the thief, and escaping both the emulation of
envy, and the corruption of time: where disease is regarded in a
religious light, and disaster is thought a blessing, and sympathy is
put to the test. Why should I compare with this work
Thebes45144514Thebes,
etc. The “seven wonders of the world.” of the seen
portals, and the Egyptian Thebes, and the walls of Babylon, and the
Carian tomb of Mausolus, and the Pyramids, and the bronze without
weight of the Colossus, or the size and beauty of shrines that are no
more, and all the other objects of men’s wonder, and historic
record, from which their founders gained no advantage, except a slight
meed of fame. My subject is the most wonderful of all, the short
road to salvation, the easiest ascent to heaven. There is no
longer before our eyes that terrible and piteous spectacle of men who
are living corpses, the greater part of whose limbs have mortified,
driven away from their cities and homes and public places and
fountains, aye, and from their own dearest ones, recognizable by their
names rather than by their features: they are no longer brought
before us at our gatherings and meetings, in our common intercourse and
union, no longer the objects of hatred, instead of pity on account of
their disease; composers of piteous songs, if any of them have their
voice still left to them. Why should I try to express in tragic
style all our experiences, when no language can be adequate to their
hard lot? He however it was, who took the lead in pressing upon
those who were men, that they ought not to despise their fellowmen, nor
to dishonour Christ, the one Head of all, by their inhuman treatment of
them; but to use the misfortunes of others as an opportunity of firmly
establishing their own lot, and to lend to God that mercy of which they
stand in need at His hands. He did not therefore disdain to
honour with his lips this disease, noble and of noble ancestry and
brilliant reputation though he was, but saluted them as brethren, not,
as some might suppose, from vainglory, (for who was so far removed from
this feeling?) but taking the lead in approaching to tend them, as a
consequence of his philosophy, and so giving not only a speaking, but
also a silent, instruction. The effect produced is to be seen not
only in the city, but in the country and beyond, and even the leaders
of society have vied with one another in their philanthropy and
magnanimity towards them. Others have had their cooks, and
splendid tables, and the devices and dainties of confectioners, and
exquisite carriages, and soft, flowing robes; Basil’s care was
for the sick, and the relief of their wounds, and the imitation of
Christ, by cleansing leprosy, not by a word, but in deed.

64. As to all this, what will be said by
those who charge him with pride and haughtiness? Severe critics
they are of such conduct, applying to him, whose life was a standard,
those who were not standards at all. Is it possible that he who
kissed the lepers, and humiliated himself to such a degree, could treat
haughtily those who were in health: and, while wasting his flesh
by abstinence, puff out his soul with empty arrogance? Is it
possible to condemn the Pharisee, and expound the debasing effect of
haughtiness, to know Christ, Who condescended to the form of a slave,
and ate with publicans, and washed the disciples’ feet, and did
not disdain the cross, in order to nail my sin to it: and, more
incredible still, to see God crucified, aye, along with robbers also,
and derided by the passers by, impassible, and beyond the reach of
suffering as He is; and yet, as his slanderers imagine, soar himself
above the clouds, and think that nothing can be on an equality with
him. Nay, what they term pride is, I fancy, the firmness and
steadfastness and stability of his character. Such persons would
readily, it seems to me, call bravery rashness, and the circumspect a
coward, and the temperate misanthropic, and the just illiberal.
For indeed this philosophic axiom is excellent, which says that the
vices45154515The vices.
This was the doctrine of Menander and Aristotle. are settled close to the 417virtues, and are, in some sense, their
next-door neighbours: and it is most easy, for those whose
training in such subjects has been defective, to mistake a man for what
he is not. For who honoured virtue and castigated vice more than
he, or showed himself more kind to the upright, more severe to the
wrong doers? His very smile often amounted to praise, his silence
to rebuke, racking the evil in the secret conscience. And if a
man have not been a chatterer, and jester, and gossip, nor a general
favourite, because of having pleased others by becoming all things to
all men,451645161 Cor. ix. 22. what of that?
Is he not in the eyes of sensible men worthy of praise rather than of
blame? Unless it is a fault in the lion that he is terrible and
royal, and does not look like an ape, and that his spring is noble, and
is valued for its wonderfulness: while stage-players ought to win
our admiration for their pleasant and philanthropic characters, because
they please the vulgar, and raise a laugh by their sounding slaps in
the face. And if this indeed be our object, who was so pleasant
when you met him, as I know, who have had the longest experience?
Who was more kindly in his stories, more refined in his wit, more
tender in his rebukes? His reproofs gave rise to no arrogance,
his relaxation to no dissipation, but avoiding excess in either, he
made use of both in reason and season, according to the rules of
Solomon, who assigns to every business a season.45174517Eccles. iii. 1.

65. But what are these to his renown for
eloquence, and his powers of instruction, which have won the favour of
the ends of the world? As yet we have been compassing the foot of
the mountain, to the neglect of its summit, as yet we have been
crossing a strait, paying no heed to the mighty and deep ocean.
For I think that if any one ever has become, or can become, a trumpet,
in his far sounding resonance, or a voice of God, embracing the
universe, or an earthquake of the world, by some unheard of miracle, it
is his voice and intellect which deserve these titles, for surpassing
and excelling all men as much as we surpass the irrational
creatures. Who, more than he, cleansed himself by the Spirit, and
made himself worthy to set forth divine things? Who was more
enlightened by the light of knowledge, and had a closer insight into
the depths of the Spirit, and by the aid of God beheld the things of
God? Whose language could better express intellectual truth,
without, as most men do, limping on one foot, by either failing to
express his ideas, or allowing his eloquence to outstrip his reasoning
powers? In both respects he won a like distinction, and showed
himself to be his own equal, and absolutely perfect. To search
all things, yea, the deep things of God451845181 Cor. ii. 10.
is, according to the testimony of S. Paul, the office of the Spirit,
not because He is ignorant of them, but because He takes delight in
their contemplation. Now all the things of the Spirit Basil had
fully investigated, and hence he drew his instructions for every kind
of character, his lessons in the sublime, and his exhortations to quit
things present, and adapt ourselves to things to come.

66. The sun is extolled by David for its
beauty, its greatness, its swift course, and its power, splendid as a
bridegroom, majestic as a giant;45194519Ps. xix. 6. while, from
the extent of its circuit, it has such power that it equally sheds its
light from one end of heaven to the other, and the heat thereof is in
no wise lessened by distance. Basil’s beauty was virtue,
his greatness theology, his course the perpetual motion reaching even
to God by its ascents, and his power the sowing and distribution of the
Word. So that I will not hesitate to say even this, his utterance
went out into all lands,45204520Ps. xix. 5. and the power of
his words to the ends of the world: as S. Paul says of the
Apostles,45214521Rom. x. 18. borrowing the words
from David. What other charm is there in any gathering
to-day? What pleasure in banquets, in the courts, in the
churches? What delight in those in authority, and those beneath
them? What in the hermits, or the cenobites? What in the
leisured classes, or those busied in affairs? What in profane
schools of philosophy or in our own? There is one, which runs
through all, and is the greatest—his writings and labours.
Nor do writers require any supply of matter besides his teaching or
writings. All the laborious studies of old days in the Divine
oracles are silent, while the new ones are in everybody’s mouth,
and he is the best teacher among us who has the deepest acquaintance
with his works, and speaks of them and explains them in our ears.
For he alone more than supplies the place of all others to those who
are specially eager for instruction.

67. I will only say this of him. Whenever I
handle his Hexaemeron, and take its words on my lips, I am brought into
the presence of the Creator, and understand the words of creation, and
admire the Creator more than before, using my teacher as my only means
of 418sight. Whenever I
take up his polemical works, I see the fire of Sodom,45224522Gen. xix. 24. by which the wicked and rebellious tongues
are reduced to ashes, or the tower of Chalane,45234523Chalane. LXX. for
Babel.
impiously built,45244524Gen. xi. 4. and righteously
destroyed. Whenever I read his writings on the Spirit, I find the
God Whom I possess, and grow bold in my utterance of the truth, from
the support of his theology and contemplation. His other
treatises, in which he gives explanations for those who are
shortsighted, by a threefold inscription on the solid tablets of his
heart, lead me on from a mere literal or symbolical interpretation to a
still wider view, as I proceed from one depth to another, calling upon
deep45254525Ps. xlii. 8. after deep, and finding light after light,
until I attain the highest pinnacle. When I study his panegyrics
on our athletes, I despise the body, and enjoy the society of those
whom he is praising, and rouse myself to the struggle. His moral
and practical discourses purify soul and body, making me a temple fit
for God, and an instrument struck by the Spirit, to celebrate by its
strains the glory and power of God. In fact, he reduces me to
harmony and order, and changes me by a Divine
transformation.

68. Since I have mentioned theology, and his
most sublime treatises in this science, I will make this addition to
what I have already said. For it is of great service to the
community, to save them from being injured by an unjustifiably low
opinion of him. My remarks are directed against those evil
disposed persons who shelter their own vices under cover of their
calumnies against others. In his defence of orthodox teaching,
and of the union and coequal divinity of the Holy Trinity, to use terms
which are, I think, as exact and clear as possible, he would have
eagerly welcomed as a gain, and not a danger, not only expulsion from
his see, in which he had originally no desire to be enthroned, but even
exile, and death, and its preliminary tortures. This is manifest
from his actual conduct and sufferings. For when he had been
sentenced to banishment on behalf of the truth, the only notice which
he took of it was, to bid one of his servants to take his writing
tablet and follow him. He held it necessary, according to the
divine David’s advice, to guide his words with
discretion,45264526Ib. cxii.
5. and to endure for a
while the time of war, and the ascendency of the heretics, until it
should be succeeded by a time of freedom and calm, which would admit of
freedom of speech. The enemy were on the watch for the
unqualified statement “the Spirit is God;” which, although
it is true, they and the wicked patron of their impiety imagined to be
impious; so that they might banish him and his power of theological
instruction from the city, and themselves be able to seize upon the
church, and make it the starting point and citadel, from which they
could overrun with their evil doctrine the rest of the world.
Accordingly, by the use of other terms, and by statements which
unmistakably had the same meaning, and by arguments necessarily leading
to this conclusion, he so overpowered his antagonists, that they were
left without reply, and involved in their own admissions,—the
greatest proof possible of dialectical power and skill. His
treatise on this subject makes it further manifest, being evidently
written by a pen borrowed from the Spirit’s store. He
postponed for the time the use of the exact term, begging as a favour
from the Spirit Himself and his earnest champions, that they would not
be annoyed at his economy,45274527Economy.
In refraining from the express assertion “The Holy Ghost is
God”—some have blamed S. Basil for this: but his
conduct has the approval of S. Athanasius. Ep. ad Palladium. nor, by clinging to
a single expression, ruin the whole cause, from an uncompromising
temper, at a crisis when religion was in peril. He assured them
that they would suffer no injury from a slight change in their
expressions, and from teaching the same truth in other terms. For
our salvation is not so much a matter of words as of actions; for we
would not reject the Jews, if they desired to unite with us, and yet
for a while sought to use the term “Anointed” instead of
“Christ:” while the community would suffer a very
serious injury, if the church were seized upon by the
heretics.

69. That he, no less than any other, acknowledged
that the Spirit is God, is plain from his often having publicly
preached this truth, whenever opportunity offered, and eagerly
confessed it when questioned in private. But he made it more
clear in his conversations with me, from whom he concealed nothing
during our conferences upon this subject. Not content with simply
asserting it, he proceeded, as he had but very seldom done before, to
imprecate upon himself that most terrible fate of separation from the
Spirit, if he did not adore the Spirit as consubstantial and coequal
with the Father and the Son. And if any one would accept me as
having been his fellow labourer in this cause, I will set forth one
point hitherto unknown to most men. Under the pressure of the
difficulties 419of the period, he
himself undertook the economy, while allowing freedom of speech to me,
whom no one was likely to drag from obscurity to trial or banishment,
in order that by our united efforts our Gospel might be firmly
established. I mention this, not to defend his reputation, for
the man is stronger than his assailants, if there are any such; but to
prevent men from thinking that the terms found in his writings are the
utmost limit of the truth, and so have their faith weakened, and
consider that their own error is supported by his theology, which was
the joint result of the influences of the time and of the Spirit,
instead of considering the sense of his writings, and the object with
which they were written, so as to be brought closer to the truth, and
enabled to silence the partisans of impiety. At any rate let his
theology be mine, and that of all dear to me! And so confident am
I of his spotlessness in this respect, that I take him for my partner
in this, as in all else: and may what is mine be attributed to
him, what is his to me, both at the hands of God, and of the wisest of
men! For we would not say that the Evangelists are at variance
with one another, because some are more occupied with the human side of
the Christ, and others pay attention to His Divinity; some having
commenced their history with what is within our own experience, others
with what is above us; and by thus sharing the substance of their
message, they have procured the advantage of those who receive it, and
followed the impressions of the Spirit Who was within them.

70. Come then, there have been many men of
old days illustrious for piety, as lawgivers, generals, prophets,
teachers, and men brave to the shedding of blood. Let us compare
our prelate with them, and thus recognize his merit. Adam was
honoured by the hand of God,45284528Gen. i. 27. and the delights of
Paradise,45294529Ib. ii.
8. and the first
legislation:45304530Ib. ii.
16. but, unless I
slander the reputation of our first parent, he kept not the
command. Now Basil both received and observed it, and received no
injury from the tree of knowledge, and escaped the flaming sword, and,
as I am well assured, has attained to Paradise. Enos first
ventured to call upon the Lord.45314531Ib. iv.
26. Basil
both called upon Him himself, and, what is far more excellent, preached
Him to others. Enoch was translated,45324532Ib. v.
21.
attaining to his translation as the reward of a little piety (for the
faith was still in shadow) and escaped the peril of the remainder of
life, but Basil’s whole life was a translation, and he was
completely tested in a complete life. Noah was entrusted with the
ark,45334533Gen. vi. 13. and the seeds of a new world committed to a
small house of wood, in their preservation from the waters. Basil
escaped the deluge of impiety and made of his own city an ark of
safety, which sailed lightly over the heretics, and afterwards
recovered the whole world.

71. Abraham was a great man, a patriarch,
the offerer of the new sacrifice,45344534Ib. xxii.
i. by presenting
to Him who had given it the promised seed, as a ready offering, eager
for slaughter. But Basil’s offering was no slight one, when
he offered himself to God, without any equivalent being given in his
stead, (for how could that have been possible?) so that his sacrifice
was consummated. Isaac was promised even before his
birth,45354535Ib. xviii.
10. Basil promised
himself, and took for his spouse Rebekah, I mean the Church, not
fetched from a distance by the mission of a servant,45364536Ib. xxiv.
3. but bestowed upon and entrusted to him by
God close at home: nor was he outwitted in the preference of his
children, but bestowed upon each what was due to him, without any
deception, according to the judgment of the Spirit. I extol the
ladder of Jacob,45374537Ib. xxviii.
12. and the pillar
which he anointed to God, and his wrestling with Him, whatever it was;
and, in my opinion, it was the contrast and opposition of the human
stature to the height of God, resulting in the tokens of the
defeat45384538Defeat or
“loss of generative power.” of his race.
I extol also his clever devices and success in cattle-breeding, and his
children, the twelve Patriarchs, and the distribution of his blessings,
with their glorious prophecy of the future. But I still more
extol Basil for the ladder which he did not merely see, but which he
ascended by successive steps towards excellence, and the pillar which
he did not anoint, but which he erected to God, by pillorying the
teaching of the ungodly; and the wrestling with which he wrestled, not
with God, but, on behalf of God, to the overthrow of the heretics; and
his pastoral care, whereby he grew rich, through gaining for himself a
number of marked sheep greater than that of the unmarked, and his
illustrious fruitfulness in spiritual children, and the blessing with
which he established many.

72. Joseph was a provider of corn,45394539Gen. xli. 40. but in Egypt only, and not frequently, and
of bodily food. Basil did so for all men, and at all
420times, and in spiritual food,
and therefore, in my opinion, his was the more honourable
function. Like Job, the man of Uz,45404540Job i. 1. he
was both tempted, and overcame, and at the close of his struggles
gained splendid honour, having been shaken by none of his many
assailants, and having gained a decisive victory over the efforts of
the tempter, and put to silence the unreason of his friends, who knew
not the mysterious character of his affliction. “Moses and
Aaron among His priests.”45414541Ps. xcix. 6. Truly
was Moses great, who inflicted the plagues upon Egypt,45424542Exod. vii. 8. et seq. and delivered the people among many signs
and wonders, and entered within the cloud, and sanctioned the double
law, outward in the letter, and inward in the Spirit. Aaron was
Moses’ brother,45434543Ib. xxix.
4. both naturally and
spiritually, and offered sacrifices and prayers for the people, as the
hierophant of the great and holy tabernacle, which the Lord pitched,
and not man.45444544Heb. viii. 2. Of both of
them Basil was a rival, for he tortured, not with bodily but with
spiritual and mental plagues, the Egyptian race of heretics, and led to
the land of promise45454545Ib. xi.
9. the people of
possession, zealous of good works;45464546Tit. ii. 14. he inscribed
laws, which are no longer obscure, but entirely spiritual, on
tables454745472 Cor. iii. 3. which are not
broken but are preserved; he entered the Holy of holies,45484548Exod. xxiv. 8; Heb. ix. 19. not once a year, but often, I may say every
day, and thence he revealed to us the Holy Trinity; and cleansed the
people, not with temporary sprinklings, but with eternal
purifications: What is the special excellence of Joshua?45494549Josh. i. 2. His generalship, and the distribution
of the inheritance, and the taking possession of the Holy Land.
And was not Basil an Exarch?45504550Exarch or
Metropolitan. Was he not a
general of those who are saved by faith?45514551Eph. ii. 8. Did he not assign the different
inheritances and abodes, according to the will of God, among his
followers? So that he too could use the words, “The lot is
fallen unto me in pleasant places;45524552Ps. xvi. 6. and “my
fortunes are in Thy hands,”45534553Ib. xxxi.
16. fortunes more
precious than those which come to us on earth, and can be snatched
away.

73. Further, to run over the Judges, or the
most illustrious of the Judges, there is “Samuel among those that
call upon His Name,”45544554Ib. cxix.
6. who was given to
God before his birth,455545551 Sam. i. 20. and sanctified
immediately after his birth, and the anointer with his horn of kings
and priests.45564556Ib. xvi.
13. But was not
Basil as an infant consecrated to God from the womb, and offered with a
coat45574557 Cf. 1 Sam. ii. 19. at the altar, and was he not a seer of
heavenly things, and anointed of the Lord, and the anointer of those
who are perfected by the Spirit? Among the kings, David is
celebrated, whose victories and trophies455845582 Sam. v. 1.
gained from the enemy are on record, but his most characteristic trait
was his gentleness,45594559Ps. cxxxii. 1 (LXX.). and, before his
kingly office, his power with the harp, able to soothe even the evil
spirit. Solomon asked of God and obtained breadth of
heart,456045601 Kings iv. 29. making the furthest
possible progress in wisdom and contemplation, so that he became the
most famous man of his time. Basil, in my opinion, was in no
wise, or but little inferior, to the one in gentleness, to the other in
wisdom, so that he soothed the arrogance of infuriated sovereigns; and
did not merely bring the queen of the south from the ends of the earth,
or any other individual, to visit him because of his renown for wisdom,
but made his wisdom known in all the ends of the world. I pass
over the rest of Solomon’s life. Even if we spare it, it is
evident to all.

74. Do you praise the courage of
Elijah456145612 Kings i. 1. in the presence of
tyrants, and his fiery translation?45624562Ib. ii.
11. Or the
fair inheritance of Elisha, the sheepskin mantle, accompanied by the
spirit of Elijah?45634563Ib. ii.
13, 15. You must also
praise the life of Basil, spent in the fire. I mean in the
multitude of temptations, and his escape through fire, which burnt, but
did not consume, the mystery of “the bush,”45644564Exod. iii. 1. and the fair cloak of skin from on high, his
indifference to the flesh. I pass by the rest, the three young
men bedewed in the fire,45654565Dan. iii. 5. the fugitive
prophet praying in the whale’s belly,45664566Jonah ii. 1.
and coming forth from the creature, as from a chamber; the just man in
the den, restraining the lions’ rage,45674567Dan. vi. 22.
and the struggle of the seven Maccabees,456845682 Macc. vii. 1.
who were perfected with their father and mother in blood, and in all
kinds of tortures. Their endurance he rivalled, and won their
glory.

75. I now turn to the New Testament, and
comparing his life with those who are here illustrious, I shall find in
the teachers a source of honour for their disciple. Who was the
forerunner of Jesus?45694569 S. Luke i. 76. John, the
voice of the Word,45704570Ib. iii.
4. the lamp of the
Light,45714571 S. John v. 35; i. 8. before Whom he even
leaped in the womb,45724572 S. Luke ii. 41. and Whom he
preceded to Hades, whither he was despatched by the rage of
Herod,45734573 S. Matt. xiv. 10. to herald even
there 421Him who was
coming. And, if my language seems audacious to anyone, let me
assure him beforehand, that in making this comparison, I neither prefer
Basil, nor imply that he is equal to him who surpasses all who are born
of women,45744574 S. Matt. xi. 11. but only show that
he was stirred to emulation, and possessed to some extent his striking
features. For it is no slight thing for the earnest to imitate
the greatest of men, even in a slight degree. Is it not indeed
manifest that Basil was a copy of John’s asceticism? He
also lived in the wilderness, and wore in nightly watchings a ragged
garb, during his shrinking retirement; he also loved a similar food,
purifying himself for God by abstinence; he also was thought worthy to
be a herald, if not a forerunner, of Christ, and there went out to him
not only all the region round about,45754575Ib. iii.
5. but also that
which was beyond its borders; he also stood between the two covenants,
abolishing the letter of the one by administering the spirit of the
other, and bringing about the fulfilment of the hidden law through the
dissolution of that which was apparent.

76. He emulated the zeal of Peter,45764576Acts iv. 8. the intensity of Paul, the faith of both
these men of name and of surname, the lofty utterance of the sons of
Zebedee, the frugality and simplicity of all the disciples.
Therefore he was also entrusted with the keys of the heavens,45774577 S. Matt. xvi. 1. and not only from Jerusalem and round about
unto Illyricum,45784578Rom. xv. 1. but he embraces a
wider circle in the Gospel; he is not named, but becomes, a Son of
thunder; and lying upon the breast of Jesus, he draws thence the power
of his word, and the depth of his thoughts. He was prevented from
becoming a Stephen,45794579Acts vii. 58. eager though he
was, since reverence stayed the hands of those who would have stoned
him. I am able to sum up still more concisely, to avoid treating
in detail on these points of each individual. In some respects he
discovered, in some he emulated, in others he surpassed the good.
In his many-sided virtues he excelled all men of this day. I have
but one thing left to say, and in few words.

77. So great was his virtue, and the eminence of
his fame, that many of his minor characteristics, nay, even his
physical defects, have been assumed by others with a view to
notoriety. For instance his paleness, his beard, his gait, his
thoughtful, and generally meditative, hesitation in speaking, which, in
the ill-judged, inconsiderate imitation of many, took the form of
melancholy. And besides, the style of his dress, the shape of his
bed, and his manner of eating, none of which was to him a matter of
consequence, but simply the result of accident and chance. So you
might see many Basils in outward semblance, among these statues in
outline, for it would be too much to call them his distant echo.
For an echo, though it is the dying away of a sound, at any rate
represents it with great clearness, while these men fall too far short
of him to satisfy even their desire to approach him. Nor was it a
slight thing, but a matter with good reason held in the highest
estimation, to chance to have met him or done him some service, or to
carry away the souvenir of something which he had said or done in jest
or in earnest: as I know that I have myself often taken pride in
doing; for his improvisations were much more precious and brilliant
than the laboured efforts of other men.

78. But when, after he had finished his
course, and kept the faith,458045802 Tim. iv. 7. he longed to
depart, and the time for his crown was approaching,45814581Phil. i. 23. he did not hear the summons:
“Get thee up into the mountain and die,”45824582Deut. xxxii. 49. but “Die and come up to
us.” And here again he wrought a wonder in no wise inferior
to those mentioned before. For when he was almost dead, and
breathless, and had lost the greater part of his powers; he grew
stronger in his last words, so as to depart with the utterances of
religion, and, by ordaining the most excellent of his attendants,
bestowed upon them both his hand and the Spirit: so that his
disciples, who had aided him in his priestly office, might not be
defrauded of the priesthood. The remainder of my task I approach,
but with reluctance, as it would fall more fully from the mouths of
others than from my own. For I cannot philosophise over my
misfortune, even if I greatly longed to do so, when I recollect that
the loss is common to us all, and that the misfortune has befallen the
whole world.

79. He lay, drawing his last breath, and
awaited by the choir on high, towards which he had long directed his
gaze. Around him poured the whole city, unable to bear his loss,
inveighing against his departure, as if it had been an oppression, and
clinging to his soul, as though it had been capable of restraint or
compulsion at their hands or their prayers. Their suffering had
driven them distracted, all were eager, were it possible, to add to his
life a portion of their own. And when they failed, for it must
needs be proved that he was a man, and, with his last words “Into
thy Hands I commend my spirit,”45834583Ps. xxxi. 6. he
had joyfully resigned his soul to the care of the angels who carried
him away; not without having some religious instructions and
injunctions for the benefit of those who were present—then
occurred a wonder more remarkable than any which had happened
before.

80. The saint was being carried out, lifted
high by the hands of holy men, and everyone was eager, some to seize
the hem of his garment,45844584 S. Luke viii. 44. others only just to
touch the shadow,45854585Acts v. 15. or the bier which
bore his holy remains (for what could be more holy or pure than that
body), others to draw near to those who were carrying
422it, others only to enjoy the sight,
as if even this were beneficial. Market places, porticos, houses
of two or three stories were filled with people escorting, preceding,
following, accompanying him, and trampling upon each other; tens of
thousands of every race and age, beyond all previous experience.
The psalmody was overborne by the lamentations, philosophic resignation
sank beneath the misfortune. Our own people vied with strangers,
Jews, Greeks, and foreigners, and they with us, for a greater share in
the benefit, by means of a more abundant lamentation. To close my
story, the calamity ended in danger; many souls departed along with
him, from the violence of the pushing and confusion, who have been
thought happy in their end, departing together with him, “funeral
victims,” perhaps some fervid orator might call them. The
body having at last escaped from those who would seize it, and made its
way through those who went before it, was consigned to the tomb of his
fathers, the high priest being added to the priests, the mighty voice
which rings in my ears to the heralds, the martyr to the martyrs.
And now he is in heaven, where, if I mistake not, he is offering
sacrifices for us, and praying for the people, for though, he has left
us, he has not entirely left us. While I, Gregory, who am half
dead, and, cleft in twain, torn away from our great union, and dragging
along a life of pain which runs not easily, as may be supposed, after
separation from him, know not what is to be my end now that I have lost
my guidance. And even now I am admonished and instructed in
nightly visions, if ever I fall short of my duty. And my present
object is not so much to mingle lamentations with my praises, or to
portray the public life of the man, or publish a picture of virtue
common to all time, and an example salutary to all churches, and to all
souls, which we may keep in view, as a living law, and so rightly
direct our lives as to counsel you, who have been completely initiated
into his doctrine, to fix your eyes upon him, as one who sees you and
is seen by you, and thus to be perfected by the Spirit.

81. Come hither then, and surround me, all ye
members of his choir, both of the clergy and the laity, both of our own
country and from abroad; aid me in my eulogy, by each supplying or
demanding the account of some of his excellences. Regard, ye
occupants of the bench, the lawgiver; ye politicians, the statesman; ye
men of the people, his orderliness; ye men of letters, the instructor;
ye virgins, the leader of the bride; ye who are yoked in marriage, the
restrainer; ye hermits, him who gave you wings; ye cenobites, the
judge; ye simple men, the guide; ye contemplatives, the divine; ye
cheerful ones, the bridle; ye unfortunate men, the consoler, the staff
of hoar hairs, the guide of youth, the relief of poverty, the steward
of abundance. Widows also will, I imagine, praise their
protector, orphans their father, poor men their friend, strangers their
entertainer, brothers the man of brotherly love, the sick their
physician, whatever be their sickness and the healing they need, the
healthy the preserver of health, and all men him who made himself all
things to all that he might gain the majority, if not all.

82. This is my offering to thee, Basil,
uttered by the tongue which once was the sweetest of all to thee, of
him who was thy fellow in age and rank. If it have approached thy
deserts, thanks are due to thee, for it was from confidence in thee
that I undertook to speak of thee. But if it fall far short of
thy expectations, what must be our feelings, who are worn out with age
and disease and regret for thee? Yet God is pleased, when we do
what we can. Yet mayest thou gaze upon us from above, thou divine
and sacred person; either stay by thy entreaties our thorn in the
flesh,458645862 Cor. xii. 7. given to us by God
for our discipline, or prevail upon us to bear it boldly, and guide all
our life towards that which is most for our profit. And if we be
translated, do thou receive us there also in thine own tabernacle,
that, as we dwell together, and gaze together more clearly and more
perfectly upon the holy and blessed Trinity, of Which we have now in
some degree received the image, our longing may at last be satisfied,
by gaining this recompense for all the battles we have fought and the
assaults we have endured. Such are our words on thy behalf:
who will there be to praise us, since we leave this life after thee,
even if we offer any topic worthy of words or praise in Christ Jesus
our Lord, to Whom be glory forever? Amen.

4397For when,
etc. This seems to be the sense of an admittedly difficult
sentence.

4398As priests, or,
more generally, “as those who approach our temples.”
In the E. there were lavers at the entrance to the churches for the
ablutions of intending worshippers.

4399Of the task,
i.e., of restoring the orthodox faith in Constantinople.

4446Bishops.
It is uncertain who these bishops were. Clémencet thinks
they were Lucifer and Eusebius of Vercellæ. But a separation
had ere this taken place between them in consequence of Lucifer’s
rash action at Antioch. Nor is it certain that Eusebius had not
already returned to Italy.

4447One, a
monastery. The rule of S. Basil is widely observed to this day in
Eastern monasteries. Cf. § 34.

4452Properties. ἰδιότητες.
Petav. de Trin. iv. Proem. § 2 gives other Greek equivalent
terms. The Latin terms are “notiones” (S.
Thom. Aq. Summa. I. xxxii. qu. 2), “proprietates” or
relationes. They denote those relative “attributes
ad intra” which distinguish the Persons, if they do not actually
constitute the Personality of each of the Three Divine Persons.
They are five in number, Unbegottenness, Paternity, Filiation, active
and passive Spiration. Perhaps the nearest English equivalent is
“characteristic (or distinctive) relations.”—Cf.
Orat. xlii. 15.

4489Burnings,
a.d. 370. Eighty ecclesiastics, sent on
a mission to Valens at Nicomedia, were by his orders sent to sea off
the coast of Bithynia, and, the vessel being set on fire, were burnt to
death.

4511Cells,
etc. This passage strongly favours the view of Clemencet that
S. Gregory uses μοναστήρια
in the literal sense of “the abodes of solitaries,” and
that there is no great distinction between κοινωνικοί
and μιγάδες. Cf. ii.
29. xxi. 10–19.